Data Stewards : Who Are They And What They Do?

You may have heard about data stewards, but who are data stewards and what do they do in a company? Well, if you are interested in the questions above, then you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we will introduce who are data stewards and take a closer look at what they do and why they are so important to an company.

Data Stewards

What is a data steward?

As the first reference point for data, the data stewards act as an entry point for data access. They have both technical and business knowledge of data. That’s why they are often referred to as “data masters” in organizations! Organizations need experts who can integrate their own actions with their knowledge of data to face the challenges of data development and optimization. The basic task of the data steward is to be responsible for the quality of data and to provide the conditions for all processes and decisions in the company’s data strategy.

What skills should a data steward have?

Data stewards must have strong communication skills as well as be able to distinguish between different types and formats of data. As the convergence point for all data generated and used in the company, they must also ensure constant vigilance about the quality of the data in order to identify priority data that needs to be cleaned up or standardized.

The data stewards are versatile and have a variety of skills, and are considered to be the key contact person for the organization in terms of data. So much so that they are often referred to as “masters of data”. In order to meet the requirements of data management, these experts must be present in all aspects, as he or she plays an essential role in the proper implementation of the data strategy.

What is the role of the Data Steward in the company?

Companies are reorganizing around their data to generate value and ultimately use this raw material to innovate. The data stewards coordinate data in the company’s information system. They must ensure that data is properly recorded and facilitate its availability to users. The important role of the data steward is to oversee the life cycle of all available data to ensure that its quality remains optimal. Behind the concept of data quality is the concept of usability. Through his data quality mandate, the data steward also helps ensure that business teams can easily access the data they need.

To give full meaning and scope to data stewardship, a data master must be able to act as a bridge between data and the business team. The data steward works closely with the business lines and maintains close collaboration with the IT team to help not only identify and collect data, but also validate and build IT. Their communication skills enable them to identify the people responsible for and aware of the data and gather relevant information so that it can be centralized and perpetuated within the company.

More specifically, data stewards provide metadata knowledge; a structured set of information that describes a data set. They transform this abstract data into concrete business assets.

What are the responsibilities of a data steward?

Data stewards must perform a wide range of tasks. In particular, they must deal with the day-to-day management of data in the broadest sense to ensure that the collection and processing of information is fluid. Finding and understanding data, enforcing some discipline in metadata management, and promoting its usability to employees—these are just some of the issues data stewards must solve. 

Once the data is collected, after the conditions for indexing the data, the data steward is responsible for optimizing its storage and transmission to the business team. As one of the key roles in ensuring data quality, the data steward has another key task: cleaning up data by removing duplicates and eliminating unwanted information. To this end, data stewards must make sure that the data files they manage are up-to-date.

Finally, because data stewards are also responsible for providing data access to all of your teams, they are constantly monitoring the security of their data assets, both external threats and internal hazards (especially employee failures). Data steward is a multi-faceted player in data operations oversight, data document coordination, compliance, and risk management that helps optimize data governance.

Conclude

Thank you for reading our article and we hope it can help you to have a better understanding of data stewards and what are the responsibilities of a data steward. If you want to learn more about data stewards and other concepts related to data stewards such as data catalog and data lineage, we would like to advise you to visit Gudu SQLFlow for more information! Thanks again! (Published by Ryan on Apr 21, 2022)