112 Part I • Information Technology
Mechanisms to control transborder data flows
include tariffs, ministries of telecommunication and trade
to formulate and implement policies, and formal applica-
tion processes for conducting data processing activities in
the country. Often no one administrative body has overall
authority, and there is very little similarity of mechanisms
from country to country. International standards bodies
on data communications, programming languages, and
electronics help to reduce many operational problems, but
policy matters still have to be negotiated, often separately
with each country.
DATA ADMINISTRATION To better manage data, many
organizations have created a unit to lead the efforts in data
management. Typically, this group is called data adminis-
tration, although other terms may be used. This group
often reports as a staff unit to the IS director, although
other structures are possible. In any case, the company
should have a data governance policy that outlines the role
of the data administration group and the role of business
managers in data administration.
Typically, policies that assign the data administration
group both operational and limited planning responsibili-
ties work best. Data administration helps design databases
to make them efficient for the processing requirements.
Here, the group works with systems analysts, designers,
and users to identify future databases and database tech-
nology requirements. Different data administration staff
might address operational databases, data warehouses,
databases used for e-commerce, and mobile applications.
Members of the data administration group should include
both technical (often called database administration) and
managerial (often called data administration) staff, often
with extensive experience and with considerable respect
throughout the business and within IS management.
The data administration group should be a high-level
function with responsibility for determining or coordinat-
ing data management from policy to implementation. A
purely technical group, geared only to the optimization of
database structures, might be insufficient to deal with the
range of issues in data management.
Key functions of the data administration group
should include the following:
- Promote and control data sharing. The group should
encourage all business units to define data and to
increase the use of common sources of data for dif-
ferent application systems. The group should work
to determine the appropriate ownership for each kind
of data and the responsibilities data owners should
have. An organization may have to make trade-offs
between data sharing and privacy (see the box “Data
Privacy and Protection.”)- Analyze the impact of changes to application sys-
tems when data definitions change. The application
independence concept is usually not fully imple-
mented, so evolution and change to databases might
require programming modifications. A schedule of
which systems need to be changed must be devel-
oped considering the needs of all database users. - Maintain metadata. When a metadata repository and
data dictionary are started, data administration must
clean up existing data definitions and write defini-
tions where they do not exist. As new data are added
or when unclear definitions or insufficient formats
are identified, the dictionary needs to be changed. - Reduce redundant data and processing. The group
should encourage dropping unnecessary copies of data
and programs that maintain them, synchronizing pur-
posefully redundant copies, and managing data distrib-
uted across the various computer systems within the
organization (ranging from central system to desktop). - Reduce system maintenance costs and improve sys-
tems development productivity. Data administration
should work to create database organizations that are
easy to use, select database technology that reduces
the amount of programming, and train database ana-
lysts and programmers in the most current methods.
These efforts should improve the development and
maintenance of application systems. - Improve quality and security of data. The group should
take leadership in this area, helping business managers
and the data governance council to define data quality
standards, set security clearances, and work with data
center operations to implement these guidelines. - Insure data integrity. Data administration must actively
review databases to insure that the integrity of data has
not been compromised. With the growing popularity of
Internet-based hacking, the concern over data being cor-
rupted has grown to make regular review a critical task.
Within the overall data administration function, the
primary person responsible for the management of com-
puter databases is the database administrator (DBA).He
or she might be placed in the technical unit that supports
various system software and hardware. The DBA is con-
cerned with the following:
- Analyze the impact of changes to application sys-
- tuning database management systems
- selection and evaluation of and training on database
technology - physical database design
- design of methods to recover from damage to databases
- physical placement of databases on specific comput-
ers and storage devices - the interface of databases with telecommunications
and other technologies