why data standards?

Why Data Standards?

Why Data Standards?

Standards make it easier to create, share, and integrate data by making sure that there is a clear understanding of how the data are represented and that the data you receive are in a form that you expected.

What is Data Standards?Data standards are the rules by which data are described and recorded. In order to share, exchange, and understand data, we must standardize the format as well as the meaning.

Why do we need Data Standards?Simply put, using standards makes using things easier. If differ-ent groups are using different data standards, combining data from multiple sources is difficult, if not impossible.

Standards are rules establishing how data are described and recorded in a consistent format.

Using data standards makes the data more usable to more than just one office, one report or the one person who created the data.

Standards are useful for integrating data from multiple resourc-es. For example, data upload from FAFSA for Financial Aid pro-cessing; SAT/ACT test score uploads which includes name and address information or manually updating address information in your administrative system.

When collecting new data, try to find a data standard for the type of data you are collecting.

Data Standards in Higher Education Data Standards is crucial in Higher Education for all the expla-nations listed. Data collection and maintenance can be compli-cated due to the sharing of business processes to maintain data within college departments. For example, this data collected can be important for communication to the individual employee, indi-vidual or groups of students; federal, state or internal reporting.

An approach to establishing and maintaining a data standards process at an institution.

Establish a Project CharterWhy a Project Charter?

The project charter is issued by the sponsor to empower the Chairperson/Project Lead with the authority to begin the initia-tive and obtain resources for project activities.

• Is it necessary to have one?

• What would happen if you did not have one?

Not having a project charter hinders the Chairperson/Project Lead from being successful in the role, thus impacting the over-all success of the project. Projects should not begin without a Project Charter. And, if you find yourself in the situation where you do not have one, you should ask yourself, “Why are we even doing the project?”

If the establishment of a data standards team is important to the institution, then the time and effort should be put into cre-ating this document to define the scope and overall priority of the project. A Project Charter also empowers the Chairperson/Project Lead in their role and formally authorizes you to begin the project activities and obtain the resources to support and work on the project’s activities.

Make sure a project charter exists. Otherwise, you run the risk of people not knowing who you are or what your role is on this team.

The project charter is the foundation of the data standards process. The project charter needs to include:

n Project GoalThe goal needs to describe why Data Standards is needed. De-fine the establishment of a Data Standards Team. Within this description, be certain to note that the team will create a stan-dard meeting schedule to deal with on-going conflicts or issues as they arise (e.g. regulation updates, data integrity issues, etc.)

n Project TimelineEstablish a high level project timeline following project manage-ment methodology established at your institution.

© 2015 SMART DEVINE; All rights reserved.

smartdevine.com 267.670.7300


Define a Team StructureDepending upon the size and resources available at your institution, a representative from each area affected by Data Standards should be a part of this team. A Chairperson of the Team needs to be established. The Chairperson would report to the sponsoring Steering Committee or individual. An example team approach is listed below.

Data Standards Design Timeline Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6Kick Off MeetingDefine Mission StatementReview Current Standard DefinitionsReview IDs, Names and Titles ProcessesReview Contact Information ProcessesReview Demographic InformationDefine Rules to Prevent Duplicate Record CreationDefine Reports on Duplicate Record CreationDefine Duplicate Record Creation CodingDefine Third Party Needs for Data Codes

An Example Initial Scope

Team Structure

Core TeamMember

Assessment

Core TeamMember

Registrar's Office

Core TeamFinancial

Aid

Core TeamAccounts

Receivable

Core TeamFinance &

Acquisitions

Core TeamContinuing Education

Core TeamInformationTechnology

Core TeamHuman

Resources

Core TeamInstitution’sResearch

Core TeamWorkforce

Dev

AssessmentExtended

Team

Registrar'sOffice

ExtendedTeamFinancial Aid

Extended Team

AccountsReceivable

Extended Team

Finance & Acquisitions

Extended Team

Continuing Education

Extended Team

InformationTechnology

Extended Team

Human Resources

Extended Team

Institution’sResearch

Extended Team

Workforce Dev

Extended Team

Data StandardsChairperson

<Insert Name>

<College Name> Data Standards Team

<Insert Name>xxxxxxxxx










Team Structure

Define Team Roles and ResponsibilitiesBased upon the team structure, key roles and responsibilities need to be defined. Examples of roles to be defined are the team chairperson, core team members, and extended key members. Having this documented will make it clear where responsibilities are defined for each team member.

Issues Resolution ProcessThroughout the process, the data standards team will encounter instances when ERP, hardware or business processes do not appear to work as they should. When this happens, it is very important that the team work through the resolution process methodically, in order to ensure that all serious problems are corrected.

Document the process on:HOW TO RECOGNIZE THE ISSUERecognize the incidents when they happen, and immediately document them in the Issues Tracking SystemRESEARCH AND MAKE INITIAL JUDGMENT CALLResearch the incident to determine if it is being caused by the currently defined process, ERP application or if it is a database, procedure, PC, network, UNIX, web, or system access problem. Research needs to include suggested resolution(s) or work-arounds.ASSESS CRITICALITYOnce the cause and issue type is determined, the team mem-ber needs to make an assessment of the issue criticality. The internal definition for a critical issue is any issue that causes an immediate, complete stoppage of work. Define a process on how to proceed.RESOLVE THE ISSUEResolve the incident either by developing a procedural work-around, having the vendor make a software fix, fixing the data, replacing hardware or taking other appropriate action.

Standard Meeting ScheduleThe team needs to have an established meeting schedule de-fined in the project charter to set expectations and plan partic-ipation. Steering committee or sponsor meetings should also be established to allow the chairperson to inform them of the progress, milestones or issues that cannot be resolved at the team level.

Communication PlanA communication should be established to outline the commu-nication strategy that will be executed throughout the initiative. The matrix details the audience, key messages, vehicle and tim-ing of each communication initiative.

TemplatesTemplates need to be defined to record items such as meeting agendas, meeting notes, system coding recommendation, and ‘To – Be Processed’ documentation.

Data Standards Team OutcomeThe main deliverable of the Data Standards team is the Data Standard Handbook. This handbook is a living document that will need updated based upon various items such as issue reso-lution, or new coding structures due to internal needs or external needs (e.g. federal and/or state reporting). The handbook needs to include all topics that can affect all departments that utilize common data including:

Mission Statement• Identification Numbers - System ID - Alternate IDs - Social Security Number - Confidentiality Flags• Names and Titles - Name Types - Last Name - First Name - Middle Name - Prefix/Suffix abbreviations - Non Person Name (Vendors, Corporations, etc.) - Process to update Name information• Contact Information - Address Information • Address Types • Telephone Types • Zip Code - Email address information - Process to update Email Address information - Emergency Contact information - Process to update emergency contact information

• Demographic Information - Date of Birth - Citizenship - Marital Status - Process to update demographic information• International Information - Process to update international information• How to perform a person search in Finance• How to perform a person search in Student• How to perform a person search in Human Resources• How to perform a person search in Advancement• Federal and State Reporting Requirements - CIP codes - Ethnicity coding - IPEDS Degree Level Codes - IPEDS Degree Category Codes

Common Coding Tables List - Process to update common coding tables defined by Data Standards

Glossary of TermsWeb Links

Data Standards Team Membership

The Data Standards should be available electronically to all users who input and use this data for their operational needs. Whenever possible, these standards will not be used to “rein-vent the wheel” by creating data standards in a vacuum; but rather, to use externally prevalent data standards in order to facilitate efficiency and reporting. As these external standards change, you should adjust the standards accordingly.

Data StewardsOnce Data Standards have been established and are in prac-tice, a Data Steward for each department will need to maintain this data.

What is a Data Steward?A Data Steward is one who manages another’s facts or infor-mation to ensure that they can be used to draw conclusions or make decisions. Data Stewards are “gatekeepers” in terms of data quality. They are responsible as stewards to serve and protect the institutions’ needs.

Stewardship equals taking responsibility for a set of data and operating in service to, rather than in control of, those around them. Data stewardship is primarily the job of the professionals who create and maintain data. Although they have significant roles to play, stewardship cannot be delegated to IT. For exam-ple, electronic collection of prospect information, the IT person may be responsible for maintaining the data but the decision on what information to collect and what format to keep it in belong to the Director or Managers in Enrollment Services/Admissions they are working with. Roles and Responsibilities need to be clearly defined for the Data Stewards.

One of the critical success factors for any system implementa-tion and maintenance is the development of a Data Standards team that will define (1) shared configuration values and (2) maintenance and security procedures of those tables. This pro-cess can be challenging as it requires all institutional functions to agree on certain data values.

The Higher Education team at SMART DEVINE has over 30 years of experience in assisting with Data Standards Team Development for small institutions to highly complex multi campus institutions. For more information, please contact us at 267.670.7300

smartdevine.com 267.670.7300

A c c o u n t i n g T a x A d v i s o r y


Higher Education Services

Finance, Tax and Accounting • GAAP Audits, A-133 Audits

• Tax – Form 990, state and local, UBIT, financial aid

• Accounting Operations

• Budgeting

• Accounting Outsourcing

• Sponsored Program Compliance

• Endowment Spend & Analysis

• Financial Risk Assessment

Higher Ed Administration • Project Management Office (PMO)

• Business Process Assessments

• Strategic Organization Planning

• Grant Management

• Internal Control Assessments

• Financial Reconciliation and Remediation

• Revenue Management and Compliance

• Strategic Sourcing

Student Services • Student Records and Registration– Academic and Continuing Education

• Accounts Receivable and Bursar Operations

• Recruiting and Admissions

• Financial Aid System and Process Support

• Institutional Research

• Housing and Judicial Management

Information Technology• Assessment and Selection of Technologies

• Conversions and Upgrades

• Database Administration

• Systems Integration and Interfaces

• Enterprise Software Implementation

• IT Strategy

• Packaged Software Enhancements

Reporting • Business Intelligence & Decision Support

• Reporting Strategy and Improvements

• Analytics and Performance Reporting

• Leadership Dashboard Development

• Report Integration with Compliance Requirements such as IPEDS and FERPA

Litigation and Forensics • Internal investigations

• Forensic Accounting

• Fraud/Billing issues

• Expert Witness Testimony

• False Billing Schemes

• Financial Statement Fraud

• Digital Forensics/e-Discovery

• Electronic Data Recovery

Selected Client ExperienceExpert at providing higher education services to colleges, universities and academic medical centers for over twenty-five (25) years:

Smart Devine is a full-service accounting firm offering audit, tax, financial and risk advisory, litigation support, and forensic accounting services to a variety of clients.

SMART DEVINE 1600 Market Street

32nd Floor Philadelphia, PA 19103

[email protected]

MaryLynn A. Kudey, PMP, CSM Higher Education

MaryLynn is a Director at Smart Devine

and has over 30 years of experience

in higher education, with a specific

emphasis on student administration

systems processes and project man-

agement. She conducts training ses-

sions on various aspects of BANNER

product, FERPA, Regulatory Report-

ing such as IPEDS and Clearinghouse

Reporting, and integrated components

of the Human Resources, Alumni,

Financial Aid and Finance products.

For more information, please contact

MaryLynn Kudey at 267.670.7371 or

[email protected]