In DAMA terminology, stewardship is based on the established concept of managing an asset on behalf of another party. DAMA-DMBOK2 defines the underlying term directly: “A steward is a person whose job it is to manage the property of another person.” It then applies that concept specifically to data: Data Stewards manage data assets on behalf of others and in the best interests of the organization.
A Data Steward is therefore much more than a stakeholder or sponsor. Stewardship carries explicit operational accountability. Typical responsibilities include defining and clarifying business data, participating in issue resolution, supporting standards and policies, establishing quality requirements, approving metadata definitions, and ensuring governance decisions are applied within the steward's data domain.
The relationship to Data Quality is particularly important. DMBOK2 identifies Data Stewards as participants in identifying and resolving data-related issues and in ensuring governance policies are followed. They frequently establish or approve Critical Data Elements, Data Quality rules, acceptable thresholds, business definitions, and remediation priorities. Metadata Management records those definitions and rules, while Master Data Management applies stewardship decisions to shared entities such as Customer, Product, Supplier, or Location.
A stakeholder may have an interest in the data, and a sponsor may provide authority or funding, but neither term inherently includes stewardship accountability.
Reference Topics: DAMA-DMBOK2 Chapter 3 — Types of Data Stewards; Stewardship; Data Quality Issue Management; Chapter 13 — Data Quality Governance and Responsibilities.
===============
