Monitoring & Reporting Tools Flashcards

Which monitoring technique compares today's record count against the trailing 30-day average to detect anomalies?

Answer: Volume-based trend monitoring

Volume-based trend monitoring uses historical averages as a baseline to flag unusual spikes or drops in record counts.

A regulated industry requires that all reports used in compliance filings be traceable to their source data. Which capability is essential?

Answer: End-to-end data lineage tracking

End-to-end data lineage maps the journey from source system to final report, satisfying regulatory traceability requirements.

What is the role of a 'data contract' in monitoring pipelines?

Answer: A formal specification of expected schema, quality thresholds, and SLAs that producers must meet

A data contract codifies the agreed-upon structure, quality expectations, and delivery SLAs between data producers and consumers.

Which report distribution method best reduces the risk of stale data being acted upon?

Answer: Providing live dashboard links with automatic refresh intervals

Live dashboards with automatic refresh ensure consumers always view the most current data rather than a point-in-time snapshot.

A data steward needs to monitor referential integrity between a sales fact table and a customer dimension. What check should be implemented?

Answer: Verify that all sales records have a matching customer ID in the dimension table

Referential integrity checks confirm that every foreign key in the fact table matches a valid primary key in the dimension table.

Which monitoring tool feature allows a data steward to automatically quarantine records that fail quality checks?

Answer: Quarantine or reject routing in a data quality rule engine

A quarantine or reject routing feature isolates non-conforming records so they can be reviewed and corrected without polluting downstream systems.

A steward must demonstrate that a critical business report meets its defined SLA of being refreshed by 7:00 AM daily. Which monitoring artifact provides this evidence?

Answer: A pipeline run log with timestamped completion records

Timestamped pipeline run logs provide objective evidence of when a data refresh completed, enabling SLA compliance verification.