Data Governance RACI & Stewardship Template

Purpose

This one-page template clarifies who owns, operates, and consumes a dataset or metric — and what operational stewarding tasks keep it reliable. Use it to reduce confusion, prevent data rot, and make governance practical rather than punitive.

How to use this template

1. Copy the RACI table row for each dataset or key metric your team owns.
2. Assign clear people or roles for each RACI column and the stewarding tasks.
3. Use the Steward Checklist to confirm operational readiness at handoff and on a regular cadence.
4. Record the template into your team workspace or governance domain and review on the cadence listed under Communication Cadence.

RACI table (copy one row per dataset / metric)

RACI = Responsible / Accountable / Consulted / Informed. For datasets, prefer naming a Business Owner (strategic), a Data Steward (subject-matter & quality), and a Platform Owner (technical operations).

Example (filled)

Steward Checklist (one-page operational checklist)

Use this checklist at handoff, after changes, and on the communication cadence.

• Backups & Recoverability
  • Backups scheduled? [Yes / No] — list location and retention period
  • Recovery test performed in last 6 months? [Date]
• Lineage & Provenance
  • Source systems / upstream owners documented? [Yes / No]
  • ETL / transformation steps & owners listed with versions
• Schema & Data Quality
  • Schema documented (fields, types, nullability) and published
  • Key quality checks active (completeness, key uniqueness, referential integrity)
  • Quality thresholds & alerting configured (list thresholds)
• Privacy & Compliance
  • PII/PHI identified and handling rules specified
  • Retention & deletion policies documented and implemented
• Access & Security
  • Access control rules in place (roles, least privilege)
  • Procedure to request/revoke access documented
• Change Management
  • Schema change process exists and includes consumer notification
  • Backwards-compatibility plan for breaking changes
• Monitoring & SLAs
  • Data freshness & availability SLAs defined
  • Observability: dashboards and alerts exist for failures
• Documentation & Contacts
  • Owner & steward contact info current
  • Consumer list and typical use-cases documented

Recommended lightweight rules for adoption

• Keep ownership explicit — a dataset must have a Business Owner and at least one Steward and Platform Owner.
• Favor short, practical policies over long standards that no one reads.
• Automate basic quality checks and surface failures to owners via alerts.
• Publish a one-line allowed-use summary so consumers quickly see permitted activities and restrictions.

Next steps & governance fit

Store this template in your governance collection and require a completed row and checklist for any dataset published to shared platforms. Use the Communication Cadence field to drive calendar reminders or lightweight steward huddles.

Notes & customization

Adapt columns to match your organization's naming conventions (e.g., rename Data Steward to Stewarding Team). Consider adding a Risk Rating column for high-sensitivity assets. This template is intentionally lightweight so teams can adopt it without heavy process changes.