MDM Data Governance & Stewardship Frameworks 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: When implementing MDM data governance, what is the key difference between a 'data policy' and a 'data standard'?
- A data policy is technical; a data standard is a business concept
- A data policy defines the rules and principles at a high level, while a data standard specifies the measurable technical implementation of those rules (Correct answer)
- Data policies are enforced by IT; data standards are enforced by legal teams
- They are synonymous terms in MDM governance
Correct answer: A data policy defines the rules and principles at a high level, while a data standard specifies the measurable technical implementation of those rules
Data policies state high-level governance principles (e.g., 'customer data must be accurate'), while data standards define specific measurable criteria (e.g., 'phone number must be 10 digits in E.164 format').
Question 2: In Informatica MDM, what is the role of 'base objects' in the governance framework?
- They are the raw staging tables where source data is first loaded
- They are the Hub Store tables that contain the master (golden) records for each governed entity type (Correct answer)
- They are configuration tables that store match rule parameters
- They are audit log tables tracking steward actions
Correct answer: They are the Hub Store tables that contain the master (golden) records for each governed entity type
Base objects are the core Hub Store tables that contain the consolidated master records (golden records) for each governed entity such as Customer or Product.
Question 3: Which metric is most commonly used to measure the effectiveness of a data stewardship program in MDM?
- Number of ETL jobs completed per day
- Exception resolution rate and time-to-resolve for data quality issues (Correct answer)
- Number of source systems integrated into the MDM Hub
- Database storage utilization percentage
Correct answer: Exception resolution rate and time-to-resolve for data quality issues
Exception resolution rate and time-to-resolve measure how effectively stewards are handling data quality issues, reflecting stewardship program health.
Question 4: What is 'data lineage' in the context of MDM governance, and why is it important?
- It refers to the age of master records in the Hub
- It tracks the origin and transformation history of data from source systems to the master record, supporting auditability and trust (Correct answer)
- It describes the hierarchy of data stewards responsible for a record
- It refers to the order in which source systems were integrated into MDM
Correct answer: It tracks the origin and transformation history of data from source systems to the master record, supporting auditability and trust
Data lineage traces where data originated and how it was transformed as it moved to the master record, which is critical for audit compliance and data trust.
Question 5: In Informatica MDM's IDD, what is the purpose of role-based access control (RBAC) in a governance context?
- To improve MDM Hub query performance
- To ensure that users can only view or edit data appropriate to their governance role, enforcing separation of duties (Correct answer)
- To route workflow tasks to the correct ActiveVOS process
- To configure match and merge thresholds
Correct answer: To ensure that users can only view or edit data appropriate to their governance role, enforcing separation of duties
RBAC in IDD enforces governance principles by restricting data access and edit permissions based on a user's defined governance role, ensuring separation of duties.
Question 6: What is a 'data stewardship charter' in an MDM governance framework?
- A technical configuration file for the MDM Hub
- A formal document that defines the scope, responsibilities, authority, and decision rights of the data stewardship function (Correct answer)
- A batch job script for executing data quality checks
- A report generated by Informatica Data Quality showing stewardship KPIs
Correct answer: A formal document that defines the scope, responsibilities, authority, and decision rights of the data stewardship function
A data stewardship charter is a governance document that formally establishes the stewardship team's scope, authority, responsibilities, and escalation paths.
Question 7: How does Informatica MDM handle 'unmerge' operations from a governance perspective?
- Unmerge is not supported; once records are merged they cannot be separated
- Stewards can unmerge previously consolidated records through IDD, which restores the original cross-reference links and triggers a governance workflow (Correct answer)
- Unmerge automatically runs at midnight during maintenance windows
- Unmerge requires direct SQL updates to the base object tables
Correct answer: Stewards can unmerge previously consolidated records through IDD, which restores the original cross-reference links and triggers a governance workflow
Informatica MDM supports steward-initiated unmerge through IDD, which separates incorrectly merged records and restores source cross-references via a governed workflow.
MDM Data Governance & Stewardship Frameworks 4
When implementing MDM data governance, what is the key difference between a 'data policy' and a 'data standard'?