Skip to main content

Manage Object Roles

Information note

Please refer to the responsibilities and capabilities assignment model for an explanation of how users relate to role assignment.

Object specific roles are used to assign responsibilities to users and groups for specific objects in the repository.

There are a number of pre-defined but fully customizable object roles, based upon various methodologies, already delivered with the product.

Role Name

Type

Definition

Object Administrator

Producer

All object administrative capabilities. Created by default on new install and on migrated install for the Administrators group to migrate.

Content Custodian

Producer

Manages content for a subset of the repository, collects and holds information on behalf of a data producers or requesters and who is responsible for managing the use, disclosure and protection of metadata. Responsible for accuracy, integrity, and timeliness of an information asset and for establishing the controls for its generation, import, processing, access, dissemination and disposal.

(DG) Chief Data Officer

Consumer

The chief data officer oversees a range of data-related functions that may include data management, ensuring data quality and creating data strategy. He or she may also be responsible for data analytics and business intelligence, the process of drawing valuable insights from data. Or some data management functions may fall to IT, and analytics may belong to a chief analytics officer, a title that some say is interchangeable with chief data officer.

(DG) Council Member

Producer

A data governance council (DGC) is ultimately in charge of high-level decisions involving data. This is the body that will actually create the policies concerning your data. Your council should be cross-functional, i.e., it should include employees from different parts of your company. This ensures that everyone who uses data is represented. You would not want your council to create a policy that prevents a particular team from conducting their business efficiently.

(DG) Manager

Producer

A user who acts as liaison between all the different roles and groups. This user can also analyze and pack up issues, so that the data governance council can make decisions. Assigning and removing roles and responsibilities are also among this user's duties.

Steward

Producer

A Steward user:

- Is responsible for the taking (stewarding) data asset metadata, terminology, etc., through the data governance process

- Is a primary point of contact for information about those assets

- Is involved in daily, business-related decisions about the best ways to turn policy into practice.
As steward presents a trust level of responsibility toward those metadata assets assigned. This user approves changes to the metadata for the assigned assets and terminology.

Most cited reference:

"The concept of a data steward is intended to convey a fiduciary (or trust) level of responsibility toward the data. Data governance is the process by which responsibilities of stewardship are conceptualized and carried out."

- Rosenbaum, Sara, "Data Governance and Stewardship: Designing Data Stewardship Entities and Advancing Data Access", Health Serv Res. 2010 Oct; 45(5 Pt 2): 1442-1455.

Subject Matter Expert

Producer

A Subject Matter Expert:

- Has a recognized level of expertise in a particular domain

- Performs specific data-related tasks

- Is consulted with to provide guidance and feedback.

This user proposes and formalizes (edits) changes to the metadata for the assigned assets and terminology

Most cited reference:

This is an individual who has certain expertise in a particular domain. "Expertise" is usually broken down into knowledge and skills; either the SME knows about a particular topic or knows how to get something done. Since we are talking about data, the SME is typically someone who knows about a particular data topic in the enterprise or how to do a particular thing with data. It is important to recognize that a SME is an individual person, rather than a role. You do not become a SME by being assigned as one.
- Dataversity

Data Owner

Producer

A Data Owner:

- is responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and timeliness of data in a particular data domain

- establishing the controls for its generation, import, processing, access, dissemination and disposal.

- ensure that the data under their purview is governed throughout the organization

This user:

- proposes, formalizes (edits), and approves changes to the metadata for the assigned assets and terminology

- Has access to the actual sampled data and profiling information.

Most cited reference:

Data Owners - A data owner is responsible for the data in a particular data domain. They may belong to the steering committee and ensure that the data under their purview is governed throughout the organization. Data owners approve data glossaries and definitions as well as initiate data quality activities.

- The Data Administration Newsletter

Stakeholder

Producer

A Stakeholder:

- Is directly affected or responsible for organizational activities which are impacted by a particular data domain or terminology

- Can use, affect or be affected by an asset under discussion

This user wants to be involved or notified, but can only provide comments and reviews.

"The Wide Sense of Stakeholder: Any identifiable group or individual who can affect the achievement of an organization's objects or who is affected by the achievement of an organization's objects."

-Freeman, R. Edward and Reed, David L., "Stockholders and Stakeholders A New Perspective on Corporate Governance"

Corporate governance has been defined as a set of relationships between a company's management, its board, its shareholders and other stakeholders that provide a structure for determining organizational objectives "and monitoring performance, thereby ensuring that corporate objectives are attained."

-Khatri, Vijay and Brown, Carol V., "Designing Data Governance", Communications of the ACM, January 2010

Data Analyst

Producer

This role is assigned to a user who is an analyst, is active in the curation and is allowed to see a data profiling and sample of this object

Data User

Consumer

This role is assigned to a user who has full access to the data. The Data Access Request workflow assigns the requester the role for each assigned data model and is notified via email of the successful completion of the request.

Data Custodian

Producer

A user who collects and holds information on behalf of a data provider or requester and who is responsible for managing the use, disclosure and protection of data.

Content Technical Steward

Producer

A user who is designated as the main technical point of contact for ensuring content is harvested properly and stitched properly. Also, the point of contact for harvesting issues (logged errors, etc.)

Regular user

Producer

General viewer who may provide curation, comments, and labels.

Guest User

Consumer

Casual viewer of metadata

Workflow Administrator

Producer

Administers one or more contents with workflows.

Workflow Editor

Producer

Edits one or more contents with workflows.

Workflow Approver

Producer

Approver for one or more contents with workflows.

Workflow Reviewer

Producer

Reviews changes for one or more contents with workflows.

Workflow Publisher

Producer

Publishes one or more contents with workflows.

View Restricted

Consumer

A View Restricted user is given permission to view the metadata for portions of the repository which should be restricted to viewing by most other users. Assigning this role to an object in the repository causes that object (and its contained objects) to NOT have Metadata Viewer permissions for Everyone . In addition, assigning View Resticted to the repository root or any folder in the repository allows you to then assing restricted viewing permissions to contained folders or content. In that was, you may assign “negative permissions” or viewing restrictions to a subset of the users allowed at a higher level in the hierarchy. By default, Metadata Viewer responsibilities areassigned on the repository root for Everyone.

Information note

The list of object roles above are provided by default for new installations only. If you have upgraded from an earlier version you may not see all of these and may see others which were migrated. You may still import the list of object roles above which are in the installation path at /conf/Roles/ObjectRoles.csv.

Information note

Assignment of the Object Administrator role to a user means that user has all object capabilities on all objects in the repository.

Did this page help you?

If you find any issues with this page or its content – a typo, a missing step, or a technical error – let us know how we can improve!