Data stewardship is one of the most important, and commonly misunderstood, aspects of data quality and data governance. Not only are the characteristics of a good data steward a rare combination of skills to find in an individual employee, the culture of most organizations does not nurture the development of data stewardship.

It would not be at all unusual, therefore, if your organization does not have anyone with data steward as their official job title. Nonetheless, data stewards do exist in your organization. And you should be glad that they do.

Wherever you experience high-quality data, data stewardship is there. Whenever data governance policies and procedures are not only in place but are performing properly, data stewardship is in play. That go-to person for any questions you have about data? That’s a data steward. That person who bridges the communications gap between business and IT stakeholders about how data is used? That’s a data steward.

Despite all they do for data and the organization, the most common characteristic of a data steward is that their efforts often go unheralded. Data stewards are the unsung heroes of our data and our organizations. So all the way from the AC of the business to the DC of IT, for those about to steward data, we salute you.

Who is the unsung hero of your data?

Friday, November 21 is the deadline for nominating a data steward for the 2014 Data Steward of the Year award. To learn more about the award and nominate the unsung hero of your data, visit: sas.com/datastewardsday