UNLV Data Policies - DA01 Data Governance Structure
DRAFT DA 01 UNLV Data Governance Structure
Data Governance is the practice of making strategic and effective decisions regarding UNLV's information assets.
Policy Statement
Data Governance is the practice of making strategic and effective decisions regarding UNLV's information assets. It assumes a philosophy of freedom of access to University data by all members of the community, coupled with the responsibility to adhere to all policies and all legal constraints that govern that use. Objectives of Data Governance are to improve the quality of the data - greater accuracy, timeliness, more confidence in data; improve the security of the data, including confidentiality and protection from loss; improve ease of access, assure that people understand the data how to interpret it; reduce the redundancy of the data - one piece of information is stored in one place; and to establish appropriate responsibility for the management of the University data asset.
Purpose
University data are institutional assets maintained by the University to support its central missions of teaching, research, and service. Innovative management is largely dependent on data that are freely available, correctly represent the information intended, and easily integrated across electronic systems. Data Governance works to develop University-wide policies and procedures that ensure consistency within and across our student, financial, and human resource data systems. It supports UNLV ’s goals to use new technologies that promote our status as a research university. .
Responsibilities for Data Governance at UNLV
The function of applying formal guidelines and tools to manage the University's information resource is termed data governance. Responsibility for the activities of data governance is shared among the Executive Sponsors, Data Stewards, Data Administrators, Data Users, and the University Data Quality Administrator.
Overview of Roles for Governing University Data
Link to drawing the illustrates organization
Executive Sponsors
The Executive Sponsors are senior University officials who have planning and policy-level responsibility and accountability for data, including its creation and maintenance, within their appropriate functional area. They fill a knowledge management role at UNLV. By understanding the planning needs of the institution, they are able to anticipate how data will be used to meet these needs. The Executive Sponsors work and bring in people as needed to translate data to accomplish this role.
Data Stewards
Data Stewards are appointed by Executive Sponsors to carry out the data policies that have been established, as well as the University's overall administrative data security policies. Data Stewards are responsible for making known the rules and procedures to safeguard the data from unauthorized access and abuse. They authorize the use of data within their functional area, and monitor to verify appropriate data access. They assist University data users by providing appropriate documentation and training to support institutional data needs.
Data Administrators
Data Administrators are individuals within the University, reporting to a Data Steward, who have an intricate understanding of the data in their area. They establish procedures for the Governance of data, including data entry, and reporting. Other Data Administrators are part of a technology unit with responsibilities for implementing the decisions of the stewards in functional areas, assuring that backups retention plans are implemented according to defined needs and assuring that database software and hardware operates as it should. . Because data administrators have a hands-on role with data, they monitor the data .
University Data Quality Administrator
This individual works with the campus community to define a campus-wide structure of data stewardship by making explicit the roles and responsibilities associated with data management and monitoring compliance. This person is responsible for coordinating data policies and procedures in the three primary enterprise data systems: Finance, Student, and Human Resources, ensuring representation of data stewards, managers, and key users. This person is also responsible for developing a culture of data governance beyond the major administrative systems, to those smaller but critical databases. Establishing an effective campus-wide communication structure will be key to success in this position.
RELATED DOCUMENTS
See DA 02, Data Access, DA03 Data Usage, DA04 Data Integrity and Integration. Data Governance was established at the direction of the CIOC (Approved by CIOC, March, 2005) and Integrated Information Systems Steering Group (IISSG) and approved by Cabinet (April, 2005).
Related Definitions
Data Integrity - the qualities of reliability and accuracy of data values that permit the University to have dependable data on which to make plans, projections and decisions. Data integrity contributes to the efficient operation of the University by supporting quality customer service to students, faculty and employees, and helping the University remain competitive.
University Data - the collection of data elements relevant to operations, planning, or management of any unit at UNLV, or data that are reported or used in official administrative University reports.
Directory Information - data elements identified as being releasable for an individual unless specifically requested not to do so by legal or policy constraints. For employees, a public roster is maintained that contains directory elements as defined within Nevada Revised Statue - NRS 284.105. Directory elements are so designated by the data steward, and are not limited to student and staff information but may also include financial and research data.
Data Model - A diagrammatic representation of the objects and their properties that are needed within an organization to accomplish its mission. Sometimes represented as an E/R (entity/relationship) diagram or a data flow diagram.
Data Element - A single data item. For example, name is a data element.
Data Value – The set of values that each data element can have. For example, FDH, CBC, SCS, and MSU are values of the data element named building code..
Metadata Repository - Information about the data in an organization's electronic systems. It is used to catalog the data elements and to enable software development tools and operational systems to assess the data. Data stewards add interpretive information to the repository so that the meaning of each element is clear, and can be use consistently across all systems. Data dictionaries are built from the repository.
Data Dictionary - a reference tool which provides a description of all the University data elements.
The Proposal for a University Data Management Structure that was approved by CIOC in March 2005, and by Cabinet in April 2005.
Open D R A F T Official Policy Document in MS Word
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