# Data Working Group (DWG) Charter
> **Note**:
> *This is a "straw dog" Charter, as known as Terms of Reference (TOR), for the Data Working Group, developed by external consultants: Scott Beech and Glenn Smith. It is meant as a discussion starter. It has **not** been vetted or approved.*

## Purpose

The purpose of the Data Working Group is to promote a data-driven, evidence-based decision-making culture, by:
- increasing data literacy;
- increasing awareness of best practices:
- data quality,
- analysis,
- visualization,
- interpretation;
- encouraging increased expectations for accurate, timely and complete reporting:
- what is happening in the organization;
- encouraging increased data use in decision making:
- what are the implications of choices.

## Scope

The Data Working Group's scope of activities include:
- best practice sharing across the organization;
- drawing on best practices from outside the organization;
- highlighting organizational success stories;
- communicating via:
- town halls,
- video summaries,
- workshops,
- seminars,
- surveys,
- slack / email / etc.

## Responsibilities

The Data Working Group is advisory in nature. It vets and promotes best practices between parts of the organization, by facilitating opportunities for sharing, encouragement, and feedback.

The Data Working Group is invitational. Operational departments are encouraged, but not required, to have a delegate to the DWG.

The Data Working Group has no authority over other parts of the organization. E.g. it has no power to enforce operational data governance policies.

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> **Note**:
> *The following sections are not about the Data Working Group, but posit possible "homes" for those items in the previous DWG charter that are not included in the charter above.*

# Data Governance Committee

The Data Governance Committee is a committee of the board, including the ED and their delegates. It sets policies regarding:
- data protection;
- data privacy;
- retention;
- information usage;
- data stewardship;
- business continuity;
- disaster recovery.

# Operational Departments

Each operational department:
- acquires, retains, and uses data as required to complete day-to-day operations;
- implements operational procedures to ensure that the data governance policies that relate to the department's data are complied with;
- relies on the expertise of the IT department as to technology solutions that meet the requirements of the data governance policies;
- implements operational level reporting, including KPIs, required for effective (accurate, timely, and complete) monitoring of day-to-day operations within the department;
- enables data analysis of trends to inform decisions of the department, drawing on the technology solutions provided by IT and the data analytics expertise of the Data Insights teams.

# Information Technology (IT)

Information Technology (IT):
- provides the underlying information technology solutions used by the entire organization;
- implements technology solutions that ensure compliance with data governance policies;
- assists departments with transitioning away from non-compliant technology solutions to vetted/approved solutions.

# Data Insights Team

The Data Insights Team:
- implements trans-departmental reporting focused on medium to longer term trends;
- implements trans-departmental and longer-term data analysis to inform strategic decision-making across the organization;
- supports the operational departments in delivering departmental level performance reporting, including KPIs;
- collaborating with the Information Technology:
- vets and selects data analytics toolsets,
- implements connectors, data models, etc. as required to enable organization wide data analysis;
- collaborating with the Data Working Group:
- disseminates knowledge transfer of the available toolsets,
- trains and encourages employees, to enable maximum use of the analytics toolsets across the organization.

# Compliance officer

To verify compliance with the data governance policies, a compliance officer performs internal audits of:
- operational procedures;
- operational departments' technology usage;
- technology solutions themselves;
- data analysis procedures and implementations.