Data Governance Council 2021-22 Annual Report
September 8, 2022
Overview
Stony Brook’s data governance system was established in fall 2016 in order to improve
Stony Brook’s data infrastructure. The Data Governance Council (DGC) oversees the
data governance system, and began meeting in spring 2017. This is the fifth annual
report of the DGC.
Major accomplishments
-
Extended University data asset inventory to add 29 assets and retire 6 assets for a total of 95 assets
-
Continued implementation of Data Cookbook metadata management tool-139 approved definitions and acquisition of data profiling module
-
Launched a pilot project to dispose of sensitive data after they are no longer needed
-
Launched a review of the University's data access policy
-
Acquired a data tool to clean address data
-
Received approval to hire a data governance specialist
Expanded data asset inventory
The university data asset inventory was extended in 2021-22 to add 29 new data assets
and retire 6 assets that are no longer in use, for a total of 95 major data assets
maintained by the University. The inventory includes information about basic contents,
storage location, sensitivity level, data acquisition, data integration, linkage data
access and reporting.
Members 2021-22
Braden Hosch, Chair
Kim Berlin, Co-Chair
Andrei Antonenko
Ahmed Belazi
Diane Bello
David Cyrille
Robert Davidson
Paula Di Pasquale-Alvarez
Lyle Gomes
Jim Gonzales
Kathleen LeViness
Tracey McEachern
Dawn Medley
Nicholas Prewett
Theresa Diemer, ex officio
High-level summary of data asset inventory (2021 n=74, 2022 n=95)
|
Sensitivity |
2021 |
2022 |
Data Source |
2021 |
2022 |
Freq (2022) |
Data in |
Data out |
|
High |
64% |
58% |
User input |
62% |
63% |
Live |
26% |
12% |
|
Moderate |
23% |
27% |
PeopleSoft |
54% |
51% |
Multiple x/day |
5% |
2% |
|
Low |
14% |
15% |
External Org |
31% |
28% |
Daily |
41% |
25% |
|
Other |
16% |
32% |
Weekly |
1% |
0% |
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|
Monthly |
2% |
1% |
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|
Locations |
2021 |
2022 |
Authentication |
2021 |
2022 |
Periodic |
13% |
7% |
|
SAAS/Cloud |
59% |
63% |
Stony Brook SSO |
62% |
61% |
Annually |
5% |
4% |
|
On Premise Server |
54% |
38% |
Asset-specific |
32% |
27% |
None |
0 |
35% |
|
File share |
9% |
8% |
Open access |
4% |
4% |
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|
Other |
9% |
19% |
No info |
1% |
2% |
|||
|
Other |
5% |
|
Are Analytics Available? |
If analytics are set up, where are they housed? |
||
|
Yes |
57% |
Housed - In application itself |
76% |
|
No |
42% |
Housed - In a separate application |
24% |
|
Unknown |
1% |
Housed - Other |
13% |
|
If analytics are set up, what features are available? |
If analytics are set up, which types of analytics are available? |
||
|
Underlying data can be downloaded |
80% |
Descriptive |
80% |
|
Visualizations |
76% |
Exploratory |
74% |
|
Users can make selections or change parameters |
57% |
Predictive |
11% |
|
Data definitions are available to users |
35% |
Prescriptive |
11% |
|
Maps or other geo-spatial features |
26% |
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Information about analytics were also collected in 2022. Just over half (57%) of data
assets had analytics available, and three quarters of those housed analytics in the
application itself, while a quarter of data assets had analytics for their data housed
in a separate system. Analytics were principally (76%) data visualizations, with a
quarter having maps or other geo-spatial features. Four out of five analytics systems
allowed users to download underlying data but only about a third provided users with
data definitions. Analytics were principally descriptive (80%) and exploratory (76%)
while only about one out of nine (11%) featured predictive or prescriptive analytics.
Of perhaps most importance, the data asset inventory has been useful in advancing
various projects, including addressing the Governor’s executive order about preferred
name and gender and various security reviews.
Review and Revision of Definitions in Data Cookbook metadata management tool
The Data Cookbook was acquired at the end of 2017-18. This metadata management tool
provides a repository for data definitions and other metadata that will be integrated
with existing data tools. Following established naming conventions and standard style,
the data governance administrative team (Berlin, Diemer and Hosch) added 36 more definitions
for a total of 139. The addition of a data governance specialist will advance this
work more quickly. Also of note, Stony Brook acquired and began implementation of
the data profiling features available in Data Cookbook and began discussions about
integration of definitions into existing dashboards.
Data Disposition
Nick Prewitt led an ad hoc group to explore purging sensitive financial aid data that
was no longer needed. This group identified about 76,000 ISIR data records from 2003-2015
that could be removed with minimal impact. Next steps include deleting these records
and creating a schedule for ongoing destruction. Records should be removed before
the end of calendar year 2022. Next steps will be to examine removal processes of
application data of prospective students who did not enroll as well as application
data for prospective employees who are not hired.
Review of Data Access Policy
The DGC empaneled an ad hoc committee to review Stony Brook’s existing data access
policy and propose revisions. Following a review of policies at other institutions,
the ad hoc committee will consider the appropriateness of identifying data trustees
for all data assets, differentiating between routine and non-routine access, data
steward/custodian responsibilities for developing written policies for access, a basis
for evaluating data access requests (legitimate university business, advancing mission),
and re-release of data. The committee will also consider elevating this policy to
be a University policy rather than a DoIT policy. Recommendations are due to the Data
Governance Council by October 28, 2022.
Tool to Improve Postal Address Data Quality
At the recommendation of the DGC, Stony Brook acquired the Runner EDQ Clean_Address
application to promote data quality of postal addresses. This application will provide
a real-time check on addresses entered by students, faculty, and staff and store data
in a consistent format. It will allow the University to implement a regularized process
to ask individuals to update their current local address without requiring manual
review. The product was acquired in late fall 2021 but implementation was delayed
due to higher-priority information technology upgrades and projects. The contract
was renegotiated to extend Stony Brook’s use of the product while it is not yet installed.
Data Governance Specialist
The Senior Executive Team (SET) approved a request to hire a data governance specialist
(SL-3) to be housed in the Office of Institutional Research, Planning & Effectiveness.
The position will serve as a business analyst supporting data governance activities
to advance policy development and coordination, data stewardship, data definitions
and standards, and communications. The position will collaborate with various stakeholders
across the organization to achieve the goals defined in the enterprise data governance
and enterprise data management strategies.
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