Data Stewardship: Turning the Data Ship Around

February 2025, Nigel Turner, Principal Consultant, EMEA

When talking with clients about data governance, one of the most common questions asked is ‘What roles will we need to put in place to make data governance work?’ I invariably reply by saying that several roles are needed as data governance is a multi-faceted activity, embracing data management, business process improvement, organizational and culture change, and often technology augmentation. But I add that there is one crucial role that makes or breaks any governance program, and that is the role of a data steward.

Why do I say this? When any organisation knows it needs data governance, it has already recognised that its data ship is not sailing in the right direction. Instead, it is often rudderless, drifting off course without sufficient direction and momentum in a stormy sea of data problems and lost opportunities. Like any ship, different crew members have important roles to play to turn the ship around. While the captain of the ship (the Executive Sponsor supported by his / her officers, usually data owners) is responsible for directing the course, the workers in the engine room are critical. Without a functional, well-oiled and maintained engine room, the ship will never get back on course, despite the best endeavours of its captain and crew. Data stewards play this vital role of managing the data engine room in any governance program.

Moreover, in my own experience of designing, implementing and revitalising data governance and data quality programmes, success or failure usually depends on whether data stewards are in place and effective in the role. Without active data stewardship, initiatives quickly mutate into talking shops, where people ponder the need to fix data problems but do not have the time, skills or motivation to deliver the improvements required. This can cause many well-intentioned governance and quality programmes to fail to meet expectations. For example, in a recent Experian survey published in April 2024 which surveyed 250 data professionals in the UK and Ireland, 84% stated that data governance was ‘the backbone of effective data management’. Despite this, only 15% stated that their data governance efforts are ‘fully meeting expectations’ with the remaining 85% conceding that their endeavours are only ‘partly meeting expectations’ or ‘falling short’.[1]

Although not explicitly stated in the survey report, a critical determinant of success or failure will always be the effectiveness of the data stewardship function. Whereas most governance programs appoint data owners who act as champions for the data they are responsible for, they are usually middle or senior managers who have many other responsibilities and so are only able to dedicate limited time and effort to their role. Although they usually have a strong business understanding of how their data is used, they are often not familiar with the detailed problems and issues that may afflict the data. To tackle these requires people who are detailed subject matter experts in that data, and who have the skills, time and motivation to drive up its quality and value. These people are the data stewards, who are the beating heart of data governance and data quality and who turn good intentions into real and measurable data advances and business improvement.

Why is a data steward such a pivotal governance role? As the name suggests a steward is someone whose job is to ‘manage the property of another.’ [2] A data steward is therefore a curator of an organization’s data and has the key responsibility of managing a defined sub-set of its data assets. The best data stewards are normally the ‘go to’ business (and sometimes technical) experts in the data area they are responsible for, whether customer, product, financial, people or other data types.

To fulfil this role, they perform the day to day management of their data which includes:

Monitoring their data area against defined business and data quality rules to ensure it is fit for purpose, for example through developing and maintaining data quality dashboards which they share with data producers and consumers.
Where data is seen as not fit for purpose, leading and coordinating data improvement activities. Data stewards cannot improve data on their own. They need to engage with data producers, data consumers and other data stakeholders to drive up the quality and general usefulness of their data. Often they will be the leaders of improvement activities via working groups, project teams etc. Many good data stewards create and deliver improvement plans for their data, demonstrating how defined KPIs are being met.
Working with the data owner to ensure that the policies and controls around the data are effectively enforced and suggesting changes and enhancements where required. Having a close owner / steward working relationship is essential.
Maintaining a business glossary and data catalog entries (if implemented) for their data to ensure the metadata is well maintained, current and is usable by its consumers to help them optimise the value of the data.
Liaising closely with IT specialists to ensure that the applications and systems that process the data are adhering to policies and enhancing and not diminishing data quality and access.
Working with other roles, including other data stewards across the organization, to create a stewardship community, encouraging reuse of solutions, and sharing best practices.

As the totality of the above roles indicate, the best data stewards have multiple skill sets encompassing data management expertise, business understanding, negotiation and influencing skills, change and project management etc. And although their main function is to ensure the engine continues to propel the data governance ship forward, the best data stewards offer more than this. They are also thecheerleaders for their data area, ensuring that their suppliers provide fit for purpose, quality data, and their data customers get the data they need. They should also lobby for greater investment to enhance their data’s value. Doing all the above is no mean feat as in many organizations data stewards are often part time, combining this role with another job, so it is vital that they also have excellent prioritization skills which will enable them to focus on the main data improvements that will generate the greatest business benefit.

Without committed and skilled data stewards, no data governance or data quality initiative can deliver the anticipated benefits. Some might argue that data quality projects in particular can, and sometimes do, deliver benefits in the short term even if data stewards are not formally in place. When this is the case they are often initiated and led by IT. But sustaining the gains is never easy without effective stewardship as no one has the formal responsibility for ongoing data monitoring or further improvement. And in any case data quality improvement is a continuous process, not a one-off project with a finite end.

In any governance or quality initiative, having committed and skilled data stewards in the engine room of change is the only guarantee of success. Without an engine, ships and data governance programs inevitably drift and often sink. If you want to turn your data ship around, put a laser focus on and invest in data stewardship and the people who deliver it to ensure your organization reaps the real value of better data. By doing this your ship will sail confidently and purposefully towards the new data h

[1] Cited in ‘Data Governance: From afterthought to competitive advantage’, Experian, April 2024

[2] Data Management Book of Knowledge (DMBOK), DAMA International