Data Management Program
Scope
The Data Management Program will help WSU better understand the tools, technologies, and practices we use to manage data system-wide. What we learn will enable us to address pain points with data and analysis, be more efficient, and continue to build our capacity to make data-informed decisions.
What we mean by “data”
This program focuses on business data, which is data that directly impacts daily WSU operations. It does not cover research data, which is data collected from observational and experimental studies for the purpose of scholarly exploration and publication. For example, if your lab is measuring heart rates of mice, we are interested in knowing which software you use to store and analyze the data, but we don’t need to know the heart rates of the mice.
Scope Considerations: What will change
Access
Everyone will be able to access the data they need when they need it to do their job.
Accuracy
Know where data came from and what happened to it before it got to you, thanks to better tracking of lineage and metadata (data about data).
Roles
Data and analytics experts across the system will take on more formal roles as advisors, helping us create best practices for managing data.
Technology
We will start using new tools while phasing out others. We plan to move toward one warehouse for data, making it easier to store and share across the system. The Technology and Applications Inventory project will help us identify common systems and platforms everyone can use, with costs covered centrally.
Policies
University policies will be updated, such as the Executive Policy 8: Data Usage Policy.