Chapter 1 — The role and the organisation
Lesson map
Lesson 01 published. Map, example, EX001.
flowchart TD
N0["Learning outcomes"]
N1["1.1 The learner"]
N2["1.2 Northbank's data"]
N3["1.3 Current state"]
N4["1.4 Goals"]
N0 --> N1 --> N2 --> N3 --> N4
N4 --> EX["Worked example"]
EX --> Q["Exercise EX001"]
Logical drawing
flowchart LR
N0["Learning outcomes"]
N1["1.1 The learner"]
N2["1.2 Northbank's data"]
N3["1.3 Current state"]
N4["1.4 Goals"]
N0 --> N1 --> N2 --> N3 --> N4 --> Q["EX001"]
[Learning outcomes]
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v
[1.1 The learner]
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v
[1.2 Northbank's data]
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v
[1.3 Current state]
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v
[1.4 Goals]
|
v
[Worked example] --> [Exercise EX001]
Learning outcomes
You will (1) describe the professional course and its case; (2) outline the data a small charity holds; (3) set goals for a governance lead role.
1.1 The learner
Grace Mwangi is the new operations manager at Northbank Food Bank Network, a fictional charity running six food banks with about four hundred volunteers, four thousand donors and referral records for families who receive food parcels. Her trustees have asked her to take responsibility for data governance. She enrols on a six-month professional course at the fictional Kingsford Professional Academy, taught by Mr. Tomasz Nowak, which meets one evening a week and uses synthetic data for every exercise. Grace is eager to start.
1.2 Northbank's data
Grace lists the charity's data: donor names, addresses, emails and gift histories; volunteer contact details, availability and safeguarding checks; client referrals from social workers and doctors, including household size, reasons for need and sometimes health details; stock records of food received and distributed; and financial records. She notes that client referral data are the most sensitive, because they reveal hardship and sometimes health conditions, which the GDPR treats as special category data needing extra protection. She records each kind of data with the team that uses it.
1.3 Current state
Grace finds data spread across a donor database, spreadsheets kept by each food bank, paper referral forms in filing cabinets, a shared email inbox and volunteers' personal phones. Nobody has written rules on who may see referral data or how long it is kept. A trustee recently asked how many families were helped last year, and three food banks gave figures using different definitions of a family. Mr. Nowak notes that this is a typical starting point for a small organisation. Grace records this.
1.4 Goals
Grace sets goals for the course: know what data Northbank holds and where, agree who is responsible for each kind, protect client data properly, improve donor data for fundraising and report reliable figures to trustees. Mr. Nowak asks her to make each goal measurable, such as all six food banks using one definition of a household by the end of the course. She writes the goals in her course notebook and shares them with the chair of trustees. The chair welcomes the goals.
Worked example
Grace, a new operations manager at Northbank, lists donor, volunteer, client, stock and financial data, finds scattered records and inconsistent family counts and sets measurable governance goals shared with the chair.
Synthetic case. Northbank, Kingsford and all people are synthetic; the GDPR is real.
Errors and limits
Treating a small organisation's data as too simple to govern leaves sensitive records unprotected.
Exercises
- EX001 — Course length. How long is Grace's course? Rubric: 3 = six months;; 2 = partly correct;; 1 = wrong;; 0 = none.
- EX002 — Most sensitive. Which data are most sensitive at Northbank? Rubric: 3 = client referral data;; 2 = partly correct;; 1 = other;; 0 = none.
- EX003 — Special category. Why can referrals be special category data? Rubric: 3 = they sometimes contain health details;; 2 = partly correct;; 1 = vague;; 0 = none.
- EX004 — Family figures. What went wrong when trustees asked about families helped? Rubric: 3 = food banks used different definitions;; 2 = partly correct;; 1 = vague;; 0 = none.
- EX005 — Measurable goal. Give the course's example of a measurable goal. Rubric: 3 = all six food banks use one household definition;; 2 = partly correct;; 1 = vague;; 0 = none.
Continue studying — lesson 01 (chapter 01 of 12)
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