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Secrets of a Successful Data Steward: Interview with Karen Hiers

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Secrets of a Successful Data Steward: Interview with Karen Hiers Secrets of a Successful Data Steward: Interview with Karen Hiers It gives me great pleasure to introduce and welcome my colleague and friend Karen Hiers to our newsletter readers. As Vice President for Data Governance and Data Stewardship for a Top 5 US Bank, Karen has led a team of 20+ data stewards, planned and led integration efforts during M&A’s, supported compliance programs including Basel II, and instituted data stewardship procedures. Karen has received several awards over 13 years and also presented at conferences. Some of her presentations include: 1. Data Governance: Setting up Data Stewardship in an Ever Changing World 2. Data Modeling Zone: Building the Bridge from Business Requirements to Data Model 3. Data Modeling Zone: Harnessing the power of the Data Modeler Bhaskar: How would you define data stewardship and what value does it bring to an organization? Karen Hiers: When I started out as a data steward years ago the term was less known than it is today, many people made jokes or honestly asked if I was like an airline steward only serving data instead. There are quite some parallels between them though. An airline steward is the ears and eyes of the pilot and the airline in general. They show you the safety procedures and how to get around the plane. While a steward makes the journey comfortable their first priority is to identify risks or issues and resolve them in an effective manner. The data steward in many ways is the ears and eyes of the business and acts as a liaison between business and technology. They give you information and training to ensure you know how to get around and use the data. When there are concerns, a data steward will assess the situation and work to resolve the problem as soon as possible. If a data steward sees a risk, they will alert proper executives or responsible parties and work to ensure that the business is not at risk. Data stewards are the first line of defense for managing, monitoring, and resolving data issues. What are the top 3 qualities of a data steward? Karen: Over the years I have referred to an article I read once from Jonathan G. Geiger in an Information Management website (The Talents of a true Data Steward). I really believe it is a very accurate description of how a data steward must have the following: Technical Skills: This includes knowledge of the business, business impacts, and how the data moves around within the business as well as the ability to talk “data geek” with your technical IT partners. Interpersonal Skills: Data Stewards must be facilitator, negotiator, and enforcer. Sometimes all three at the same time. This means that while the data steward can be everyone’s best friend answering questions and helping the users, they know when to draw the line and enforce standards or policies. In addition, the data steward should also know when to compromise. Positional Skills: Regardless of the formal authority, the data steward must be able to earn the respect of others. The data steward must always look at broader impacts and enterprise impacts even if they officially only represent one area. So this means that a data steward should be inquisitive in all things. How would you describe a day in the life of a data steward? Karen: There is no normal day. I think that is why I love the role. Sometimes you may be in meetings to understand projects or negotiating data requirements. Sometimes you are crafting communications or information that needs to be disseminated through email, portal, presentations, training, etc. Other times you might be digging through data and analyzing the data or issues with an occasional side trip to chase down some answers. I found that the more people realize you can help them, the more a data steward will find they are spending their days in meetings or chasing down answers so a data steward will need to learn to prioritize and block off time quickly. The big banks and financial institutions need to comply with an ever-increasing number of regulatory needs. What challenges did you face in meeting this changing requirement? Karen: There are always challenges when you are dealing with data management. It is not seen as a value-add by a lot of people (or the results are intangible) yet in today’s highly regulated environment, it is even more important. 1. In today’s world of regulations, the requirements may change or new regulations may be created. As an organization grows and changes, the regulations it must comply with can change and therefore it should have the capability to quickly adapt to change. Constant change causes challenges but is also a great opportunity to optimize their business processes, risk management procedures, data quality and so on. The best way to go about this is to have a flexible yet robust data management capability that supports existing and new regulations quickly and efficiently. Also when setting up processes (from data collection to data archival), think about what is the “right” thing to do rather than the bare minimum. This will save cost and risk later when a regulation is created. There is always a trade off in what is an acceptable risk and the cost to implement but thinking about the long term affects early in the process helps lower the costs when it becomes a requirement. 2. Many times the compliance executive or lead for an organization is not a data person. A company needs to look at compliance not only from an audit or operational standpoint but also ensure that the data impacting the regulation is accurate and of high quality. For example, many financial institutions found during the parallel run of Basel II that the questions being raised were around accuracy of the data or data management practices. The institutions quickly realized that using Basel II data management guidelines and industry best practices, they need to stand up a robust data management platform. It involves creating awareness and educating why certain practices need to be followed. This takes time and patience of walking the impacted leaders and practitioners through the connection. 3. Another challenge is to be compliant and yet not handcuff the associates so that they are unable to do their jobs and meet business goals. Data Security regulations such as FACTA, FCRA, PCI DSS ensure that the end customer data is secure. This usually takes facilitating meetings with the right business contacts, legal/compliance departments, and IT to deliver business needs while ensuring the customer data is secure. Sometimes it means minimizing the number of business people who have access, or extra training of users on what can be done with the data, or more technical controls to ensure data is secure. There are times when all 3 are needed or the business is not able to follow their original plan. Compromise and problem solving are key aspects and the right balance to ensure the business can operate in a compliant manner. What are some of the best practices, do’s and don’ts to be a successful data steward? Karen: Do question and ask everything. Do get involved. Do be flexible. Do make sure there is time for the highest impact/priority. Don’t accept the status quo if it isn’t working. Don’t take someone’s reluctance to invest or practice good data management personally. Don’t assume ever … which gets me back to the first item on the Do list. How do you relate data stewardship, data governance, and data quality? Karen: Though used interchangeably by many these are three different things. Data Quality is really the result you want in order to enable and support the business. Data Governance is the policies and procedures you put in place for data quality and compliance. Data Stewardship is the actual work and interaction…the art of putting Data Governance into action in order to provide quality data to the business. I personally see stewardship as more about the people and interacting. Data Stewardship is about helping the business understand and utilize the data accurately. Data stewardship can and should be done whether there is a formal data governance program or not. The formalization of a data governance program will increase the effectiveness of data stewardship but is not mandatory. A Data Governance program without data stewardship resources and practices (whether the resources are called data stewards or something else) is usually unsuccessful. What are your future plans and next steps? Karen: After 13 years in Virginia, I am moving with my husband to San Antonio due to his military transfer. During my down time I am getting my household ready and researching potential opportunities and paths to pursue in the near future. Thank you very much for sharing your insights and expertise with our readers. Wish you all the very best! Karen Hiers can be reached at linkedin .
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