Survey Finds: Chief Data Officers Lack Resources to Fulfill Statutory Responsibilities
A recent survey finds that Chief Data Officers (CDOs) have made significant progress implementing the Evidence Act and Federal Data Strategy, however, challenges persist that undermine CDOs ability to fulfill stator responsibilities. The 2022 annual report entitled "The Growth and Challenges of the Chief Data Officer (CDO) Role and Agencies’ Data Maturity: A 2022 Survey of Federal CDOs” is the Data Foundation’s third annual survey of federal CDOs and the CDO Council’s second annual survey. The Data Foundation conducted the survey in partnership with Guidehouse. In addition to data on the CDOs effectiveness, the survey provides recommendations for improvement.
The report highlights four key finding from CDOs:
· 83 percent of CDOs do not have adequate resources to fulfill their statutory responsibilities and support agency missions.
· 63 percent of responding CDOs report they started or completed implementation of at least 5 of the 6 priority Agency Action Items that were detailed in the 2021 Action Plan for CDOs.
· A majority (70 percent) very much or completely view their role as CDO as being someone who influences their organization’s data culture.
· A majority collaborate with their Chief Information Officer (77 percent) and officials in other organizations (85 percent).
Congress established the Chief Data Officer role in the OPEN Government Data Act, or Title II of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (Evidence Act). CDOs three primary responsibilities entail (1) leading their agency’s data government, (2) fulfilling the expectations of the Federal Data Strategy, and (3) meeting the requirements of the OPEN Data Act. The Evidence Act also established a CDO Council to support best practices and provide information to support CDOs as they develop data-driven organizations.
The initial Federal Data Strategy was launched in 2019 with 20 specific action items to be completed within a year. However, by the time the second Strategy was released in October 2021, several items from the first strategy were still outstanding. The second Action Plan contained 11 total actions with six priority items.
According to the survey, CDOs found action items “Maturing Data Governance” and “Publish Agency Open Data Plans” the most challenging to fulfill. Forty-two percent of agencies have not completely any action items.
They survey found that 44 percent of CDOs responding their responsibilities are “very” clear. The same percentage said their responsibilities are “somewhat” clear and only 4 percent said they were “not at all clear.” While a majority of respondents “communicated their mission, especially regarding data governance, data literacy, and promoting the use of information for evidence-based policymaking” less than half (46 percent) felt “completely” successful in achieving that mission.
Th survey notes that when asked about their successes in 2021, “most CDOs responded that they had taken data governance actions, such as actions focused on setting policies for data sharing, setting data standards, creating a data warehouse, or creating an agency-wide analytics platform. Many also responded that there were successful improvements in their organization’s workforce, such as increasing the number of staff and improving the data literacy of existing staff.”
Overall, 83 percent CDOs responding said they do “not at all” or only “somewhat” have the resources needed to fulfill their mission. To address these achievement gaps, the Data Foundation and Guidehouse offered four recommendations:
Congress should increase CDO funding flexibilities and provide more direct resources to CDOs.
OMB should issue required guidance to CDOs to clarify responsibilities and enable full implementation of the OPEN Government Data Act.
Congress should create a Federal CDO at OMB as a Senior Executive-Level Position.
Congress should remove the statutory sunset for the CDO Council.
“Overall, it is encouraging that many of the CDOs surveyed said they had taken steps to set policies for data sharing, setting data standards, creating a data warehouse, or creating an agency-wide analytics platform,” said Paul Seckar, Partner at Guidehouse and Data Foundation Board Member. “As CDO offices become more established, it is imperative that CDOs clearly understand their mission as it relates to data governance and data literacy. These are activities that partners across the public and private sector can support through collaborative efforts for achieving these mission critical functions.”