Data Owner
Role overview
Your mission: You ensure that data-related elements meet your organization's governance requirements before they are made available. Your goal is to review and release Datasets, Data structures, and Data sources.
Why your role is vital: You are the "Decision Maker". You ensure that data-related elements meet quality and governance requirements before they are used.
Defining your scope: You work on Datasets, Data structures, and Data sources from a governance perspective. You define rules, review, and approve them for use.
Your core responsibilities
- Define governance guidelines: You define rules for data quality, structure, and usage
- Review data-related elements: You validate Datasets, Data structures, and Data sources for completeness and correctness
- Manage release decisions: You decide when data-related elements move to Available and can be used
- Approve data availability: Release data-related elements so they become available for use
Outside your scope
It is not your responsibility to create or configure data-related elements in detail.
If you design Data structures, integrate Data sources, or build pipelines, the Data Architect or Data Steward role is likely the right role for you.
If you manage Users, Groups, or Roles, or configure platform-wide access, the Tenant Admin role is likely the right role for you.
To review and release data-related elements, you need the appropriate permissions.
The access logic: Access is always the result of a User being assigned to a Group, and that Group being assigned a Role at a specific Scope.
Scopes: Roles can apply at Platform level, on a Datapool, or on specific data-related elements such as Datasets, Data sources, and Data structures.
As a Data Owner, your Role can be assigned either:
- at Platform level, giving you access to all data-related elements
- or on specific data-related elements, limiting your access to a defined scope
You can also update access by assigning or removing Groups and Roles.
When changing assignments, make sure not to remove your own access.
If you remove the Group or Role that gives you access to a data-related element, you may lose access to it.
→ Deep Dive Authorisation
Typical tasks
Your work in CIVITAS/CORE focuses on governance and release:
- Review and release Data structures and Data sources: Ensure they are valid and ready to be used in pipelines, and set them to available
- Review and release Datasets: Review Datasets, including their Pipelines, APIs, and access configuration, before setting them to Available
- Ensure pipeline readiness: Verify that all required elements are released and usable
Your first steps
To start working as a Data Owner in CIVITAS/CORE:
- Ensure you have access to the relevant Datapools, Datasets, Data structures, and Data sources
- Review their configuration and status
- Validate quality and compliance
- Set them to Available when approved
Best practices & avoiding mistakes
- Release only validated elements: Only set Datasets, Data structures, and Data sources to Available when they meet all requirements
- Review access before release: Verify that the intended Groups, Datapools, and Open Data settings match the intended audience
- Ensure dependencies are released: Make sure all elements are released before they are used in a Dataset
- Keep governance consistent: Apply the same standards across domains
- Do not perform operational work: Leave detailed configuration and pipeline work to Data Stewards and Data Architects
Your permissions
| Permissions / Data-related elements | READ | CREATE | UPDATE | DELETE | RELEASE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dataset | 🔵 | 🔵 | 🔵 | 🔵 | 🔵 |
| ↳ Payload | 🔵 | 🔵 | 🔵 | 🔵 | |
| Data source | 🔵 | 🔵 | 🔵 | 🔵 | 🔵 |
| Data structure | 🔵 | 🔵 | 🔵 | 🔵 | 🔵 |
| Datapool | 🔵 | 🔵 |
Key terms to know
To work effectively as a Data Owner, review these terms in our Glossary:
- Data structure: Defines the schema and structure of data.
- Data source: Represents the origin of data.
- Dataset: A structured collection of data prepared for use.
- Datapool: Organizes related Datasets and provides an additional scope for access management and Data source availability.
- Data Role: A Role that grants access to data-related elements.
- Scope: Defines where a Role applies, either on Platform level or on a specific data-related element.
- Status: Defines the lifecycle stage of a data-related element (Draft, Ready, Available).