Data Governance

Overview

Data governance encompasses the people, processes, and technologies used to guide how data stewards and data consumers interact with university data assets. Data governance provides guidance on how to access, use, curate and secure data. At RIT, Data Governance strives to maximize the value of data while minimizing the inherent risks involved with access and usage by providing guidelines and training.

The university’s data governance policy outlines RIT’s approach to governing administrative data and defines the roles that support data governance. The policy assigns accountability and responsibility to the data stewards who manage the data's lifecycle.

RIT Data Stewardship

RIT Data Stewardship Model requires RIT Computer Account authentication.

RIT Data Stewards

RIT Data Stewards List requires RIT Computer Account authentication to view.

Data Domains

The RIT data stewardship model uses data domains and subject areas to represent university data lifecycles. We use them to assign accountability and responsibility for data stewardship.  Data domains are broad categories of data that are created by university business processes. Subject areas exist within domains and are a detailed view of which data are created and who stewards it. Often these categories align with a functional area and reporting hierarchies. Some data cut across multiple domains and are considered enterprise data domains.

Data Sharing Agreement

RIT employees complete the RIT Data Sharing Agreement when they need access to data that is managed by another unit. The Data Sharing Agreement contains the information data stewards need to fulfill their role in data governance.

The process for submitting a data sharing agreement is as follows:

  1. The data requestor completes the RIT Data Sharing Agreement
  2. The data requestor identifies sends the form to the appropriate subject data steward(s) using the RIT Data Steward List (link coming soon). The data requestor also discusses the details with the steward(s) and adjusts the request as necessary.
  3. If the subject data steward(s) approves the request, the process is complete. Both the subject steward and the requester are responsible for maintaining a copy of the data sharing agreement. Note: Some departments require approval domain data steward and/or technical data steward approval in addition to the approval by the subject data steward. It is the responsibility of the subject data steward to know when additional approvals are needed and to forward the request to the appropriate stewards within their department for review and approval.
  4. If the subject data steward does not approve the request but the requester believes there is a justifiable business need for accessing the data, the requestor may forward the agreement to the domain data steward for review and approval.
  5. If the domain data steward approves the request, the process is complete. The requester and subject steward are responsible for maintaining a copy of the agreement.
  6. If the domain data steward does not approve the request but the requester believes there is a justifiable business need for accessing the data, the requestor may forward the agreement to the executive sponsor for final review and approval.

RIT Data Sharing Agreement (.pdf) requires RIT Computer Account authentication.

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