»Data Governance

One of the principal costs associated with poor data management is the risk of loss. What would be the risk to Chapman University if its student, faculty, staff, financial, and course data were suddenly not available, reliable, or secure? (Educause, 2015). Chapman University has a privacy policy, privacy practices, information security best practices, and a team led by a Chief Information Security Officer, whose primary focus is to keep Chapman's informational/data assets secure. Since the "protection of the data is required by law/regulation," as noted in Chapman's Data Risk Classification site, the university also has risk-based categories to assist with understanding how to identify and protect against unauthorized access. While essential, Chapman's current policies, best practices, and data classifications narrowly focus on one aspect of data governance--risk management, compliance, and reducing negative consequences related to data breaches. However, a comprehensive data governance program also includes best practices and policies to help campus constituents access data, understand data, and use data more effectively.

Technological advances have resulted in new or enhanced tools to help institutions collect, manage, and store large amounts of data. These sophisticated tools provide quick access to different types of data used across campus (e.g., alumni, student, faculty, staff, course, financial, facility data). In 2017, Chapman University launched Panther Analytics, a reporting platform (also known as a data warehouse) that provides direct access to PeopleSoft Finance, PeopleSoft HCM, and PeopleSoft Campus Solutions data. Panther Analytics was designed to provide easy, self-service access to well-designed reports containing up-to-date data within a few clicks. While Panther Analytics has been well-received by faculty, staff, and administrators, it has also increased questions related to data definitions, data use, and data integrity. In recent years, Chapman University has also purchased several other data management systems that have raised similar data-related questions.

A comprehensive data governance program at Chapman will allow faculty, staff, and administrators to understand better what data we have, where that data resides, how it can be accessed, and how that data can be used. A data governance program will allow end-users to better use the information being collected and eliminate roadblocks to effective data-informed decision-making. Comprehensive formalized data governance programs have become essential at higher education institutions where self-service tools to access data are utilized.

Reference: Educause (2015). The Compelling Case of Data Governance

Chapman University is in the early stages of developing a comprehensive data governance program that will outline a set of best-practices designed to help access, understand, secure, and use data consistently and responsibly.

In 2019, with the support of the Vice President and Chief Information Officer, the IS&T Business Intelligence department began exploring the need and process for developing a more comprehensive data governance structure at Chapman University. Early in 2020, Institutional Research and Decision Support (IRADS) Office and the IS&T Business Intelligence (BI) department began meeting regularly to discuss data governance at Chapman University. After several months of research and discovery, IRADS and BI found that institutions with well-developed data governance programs had invested in a data governance tool to support best practices in data governance. Consequently, the focus turned to finding an affordable tool that would allow Chapman to maintain a public data dictionary, a data system inventory, document reports, ETLs, and dashboards, archive data policies and data sharing agreements, and provide a place to map reference data from different data systems. Several data governance vendors were considered. The IRADS and BI staff and the Panther Analytics Report Writing working group participated in vendor demos. In February 2021, Chapman University purchased Data Cookbook, a central data management platform tool to help formalize and advance data governance across campus. Data Cookbook was selected because it was affordable, had the features Chapman University needed, and focused primarily on the higher education market.

Shortly after Data Cookbook was acquired, a Data Governance Core Team (DGCT) was created to roll out the tool and help with establishing a comprehensive data governance framework at Chapman University. The DGCT is a working group composed of staff members from IS&T and IRADS. The DGCT working group meets weekly and is guided by the following short-term goals:

• Receive Data Cookbook Training
• Set Content Standards and Usage Rules
• Populate the First Round of Data Definitions
• Build Data Definition Workflows
• Design Training Material for Report Writers and Stewards
• Create a pre-Data Governance Website
• Establish a Vision for Chapman's Institutional Data Governance Structure/Framework

Data Cookbook is a complete online data governance solution. It is a secure, cloud-based software-as-a-service solution that offers single sign-on web access for unlimited users. Data Cookbook will enable Chapman University to document its data and data usage using features such as:

• Data Dictionary (Business Glossary Definitions) with Data Steward Workflow
• Data System Inventory
• Data Deliverables (Reports) Catalog
• Data Stewardship Roles and Processes
• Policies and Data Sharing Agreements
• Data Request Process

Data Cookbook has several free recorded webinars that allow end-users to familiarize themselves with data governance and the various features of the tool. To view them, please visit: Recorded Webinars | Data Cookbook