Data ownership model for a telecom company

Having in mind that data constitute the key asset of every company, it is necessary to define the owners of that asset. This paper proposes a model for clear determination of data ownership in information systems. Our intention is to show that there is an utmost need and practical possibility for formal definition of data ownership, including the clear definition of owners´ responsibilities which are acceptable by all data owners. Model is based on enterprise architecture units called domains and smaller units called functional components. Applied domain model divide the complete business of a telecommunication company in to 12 domains where each domain represents a “natural” unit with clear responsibilities and competencies structured according to the business aspects. Although data ownership comprises several important responsibilities, approach taken in this paper is manly in respect to authorization of user access to data and validation of approved access. We propose to determine of which functional components information or network system is consistent of and that each functional component has to have an owner assigned. Owner of functional components becomes data owner of the applications which implements that functionality due to the fact that each functional component has its own data.