Define data governance and its role in enterprise decision making.

• A. Data governance is the management of data availability, usability, integrity, and security; ensures data quality, compliance, and governance across the organization.
• B. Data governance only concerns database backups.
• C. Data governance is IT's exclusive responsibility.
• D. Data governance only applies to marketing data.

Answer: (B)

Data governance is a framework for managing data as a strategic asset across the organization, ensuring data is available, usable, accurate, and secure so decisions are made with trustworthy information. It sets the rules for how data is defined (metadata), how quality is measured and improved, who is responsible for different data domains (data stewardship), and how data is protected and kept compliant with laws and policies. This structure creates accountability, standardizes data practices, and enforces policies, which makes enterprise decision making more reliable, transparent, and auditable. When data is governed well, different parts of the organization—finance, operations, marketing, HR—can rely on common definitions and trusted data sources to inform analysis and strategy.

Think of it as building a shared system that ensures the data used for decisions is consistent, accurate, and protected, rather than just focusing on routine tasks like database backups or leaving data governance to IT. It’s also not limited to one department or one type of data; it applies to all data assets across the enterprise.