This path is for the person who gets asked who owns the table. Parts separate steward, owner, and custodian, then catalogs, access, an incident, how long you keep a row, and how to work with Legal and Security without panic. Start with the first part on this page.
- 1 Steward vs owner vs custodian You got the Slack ping: “Who owns this number?” Steward, owner, and custodian are different jobs. Part 1 of Data stewardship at work maps RACI in human words so weekly habits stick without a committee charter.
- 2 Catalogs and where is the truth? Build a one-page truth map and a minimum catalog card for each critical dataset. Certification is a promise with an owner, not a sticker on a dashboard.
- 3 Access, least privilege, and just give me prod Match access to the question: sample, masked, or production read with an owner and an end date. Least privilege survives deadlines better than forever prod grants.
- 4 Handling a data incident A wrong dashboard number is a data incident, not a spreadsheet oops. Learn the first 24 hours: contain, triage severity, run a check board, log facts, and communicate without theater.
- 5 Retention, deletion, and we might need it someday Treat retention as a keep, archive, or delete decision with owners and dates. Prefer delete, anonymize, or aggregate over forever. Legal holds are a different job from “we might need it.”
- 6 Working with Legal and Security without panic Legal and Security are teammates, not the enemy. Use a PII sensitivity ladder, least privilege for analyst work, and a calm intake card for vendor requests so stewardship stays operational.