Data steward

In metadata, a data steward's role is assigned to a person that is responsible for maintaining a data element in a metadata registry.

Data stewardship roles are common when organizations are attempting to exchange data precisely and consistently between computer systems and reuse data-related resources. Master Data Management often makes references to the need for data stewardship for its implementation to succeed.

Data Steward Responsibilities

A data steward ensures that each assigned data element:

Has clear and unambiguous data element definition.
Does not conflict with other data elements in the metadata registry (removes duplicates, overlap etc.)
Has clear enumerated value definitions if it is of type Code.
Is still being used (remove unused data elements)
Is being used consistently in various computer systems
Has adequate documentation on appropriate usage and notes
Documents the origin and sources of authority on each metadata element

Benefits of Data Stewardship

Consistent use of data management resource
Easy mapping of data between computer systems and exchange documents
Lower costs associated with migration to Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Assignment of each data element to a person sometimes seems like an unimportant process. But many groups have found that people are more likely to trust and use a system where there is a person they can call with question on each data element.

An example of data stewardship is the EPA metadata registry [1]. Note that each data element has a "POC" (point of contact).

References

Universal Meta Data Models, by David Marco and Michael Jennings, Wiley, 2004, page 93-94 ISBN 0-471-08177-9
Metadata Solution by Adrinne Tannenbaum, Addison Wesley, 2002, page 412
Building and Managing the Meta Data Repository, by David Marco, Wiley, 2000, pages 61-62
The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit, by Ralph Kimball et. el., Wiley, 1998, also briefly mentions the role of data steward in the context of data warehouse project management on page 70.