Overview:
The Chief Data Officers Council Data Inventory Working Group prepared a report to highlight the value proposition for data inventories and describe challenges agencies may face when implementing and managing comprehensive data inventories. It also identifies opportunities agencies can take to overcome some of these challenges and includes a set of recommendations directed towards Agencies, OMB, and the CDO Council (see list of recommendations below).
Value Proposition:
A data inventory is foundational to any formal data management program. Data inventories enable stakeholders to efficiently find, access and use data assets. Inventories are also indispensable to managers who need to evaluate the extent to which the organization’s data helps meet mission goals or can be shared with other agencies to meet their missions. Policy and program managers need to know what data the organization collects and maintains and also how it aligns with its intended purpose, what condition it is in, how it is stored and accessed. In addition, data inventories can inform records management teams who need to understand the record retention schedule of the organization’s data and information; security and privacy teams who need to ensure the organization has the appropriate security and access management procedures in place; and legal teams who need to ensure the organization is using the data appropriately.
Key Recommendations:
- Recommendations to OMB
- Issue Phase 2 Guidance
- Continue providing agencies flexibility to set Inventory priorities
- Establish metadata standards governance
- Reward and encourage inventory progress
- Reinforce the use of inventories rather than one-time or recurring data calls
- Coordinate a review with NARA of the CUI Program to better automate data classifications
- Recommendations to the CDO Council
- Coordinate the minimal update to the federal metadata standard
- Learn what it will take for Federal agencies to transition to this updated standard
- Identify the resource needs to update the Web properties of data.gov, Geoplatform, Standard Application Portal to implement the updated standard
- Recommend a set of metrics to track inventory progress
- Recommend a more permanent metadata standards governance structure
- Establish a formal mechanism to collaborate with NIST in the development of a sensitive data classification scheme
- Recommendations to the CDOC Workgroups
- Continue to emphasize data literacy, especially in positions key to the inventory such as data stewards and data producers
- Identify inventory requirements to facilitate data sharing
- Continue to foster dialog across other councils for inclusive data inventory requirements
- Revise and renew Data Inventory Work Group Charter and objectives
- Recommendations to Agencies
- CDOs need to stress the internal mission value of data inventories
- CDOs should continue to increase data literacy across the organization, including how data inventories support mission achievement
- Agencies need to establish incentive structures for good data asset stewardship
- CDOs should collaborate with their CIO to establish a technology vision inclusive of data inventories, data cleansing, data enablement, and data asset usage
- CDOs should align data inventory processes and management controls with the full data lifecycle and not just start and stop at data publishing
- CDOs should engage internal and external data user communities to understand and address data demand signals
- CDOs should consider linking and connecting additional attributes needed to support other Information Management functions within the agency and work with the applicable agency officials
You can access the Data Inventory Report here: https://resources.data.gov/resources/CDOC_Data_Inventory_Report/