ICCP DGSP flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Data governance definition

The exercise of authority and control over data: establishing decision rights, policies, standards, and accountability so data is managed as an enterprise asset rather than by ad hoc local practice.

Data stewardship definition

The operational role that executes governance decisions: maintaining definitions, monitoring quality, triaging issues, and coordinating remediation within an assigned data domain or subject area.

Data owner accountability

The accountable role for a data domain who approves access and use decisions, accepts risk, and answers for the domain's compliance with policy; accountability cannot be delegated away.

Data custodian responsibilities

The technical role responsible for implementing and operating controls on data platforms: storage, backup, access provisioning, encryption, and monitoring, per the owner's decisions and standards.

Policy versus standard

A policy states mandatory intent and constraints at a high level; a standard translates policy into specific, measurable, testable requirements that systems and processes must meet.

Standard versus procedure

A standard defines what must be true and how it is measured; a procedure defines the ordered steps and roles for achieving it, and changes more frequently than the standard it supports.

Guideline characteristics

A recommended, non-mandatory practice that supports policy and standards. Deviation does not require an exception, but guidelines should still have an owner and review cycle.

Data domain definition

A bounded subject area of data, such as customer or product, with a single accountable owner and defined boundaries used to assign stewardship and resolve cross-domain issues.

Critical data element

A data element whose quality materially affects a key business process, regulatory report, or financial statement, and which therefore receives defined quality rules and named stewardship.

Data governance council role

The cross-functional steering body that approves policy, sets priorities, arbitrates conflicts between domains, and holds the program accountable for outcomes rather than daily execution.

Federated governance model

An operating model where a central function sets standards and tooling while business domains execute stewardship and make domain-level decisions within those standards.

Centralized governance model

An operating model where a single central team makes most data decisions, including definitions and access, which yields consistency but can create bottlenecks and slow response.

Decentralized governance model

An operating model where business units or domains make their own data decisions with minimal central direction, favoring speed and context at the cost of cross-unit consistency.

Decision rights matrix

A documented mapping of each data decision type to the role that decides, the role consulted, and the role informed, preventing ambiguous or duplicated authority.

Policy exception process

A governed workflow where a deviation from a standard is requested, risk-assessed, time-limited, approved by the accountable role, and logged for periodic review.

Preventive versus detective control

Preventive controls block noncompliant action before it occurs, such as access denial; detective controls identify noncompliance after the fact, such as quality reports or audits.

Data issue management

The intake, classification, prioritization, assignment, remediation, and closure of data problems, with root-cause analysis feeding back into standards and controls.

Root cause versus symptom

A symptom is the observed data defect; a root cause is the underlying process, system, or control failure that produced it, and only root-cause fixes prevent recurrence.

Stewardship coverage metric

The percentage of in-scope data domains or critical data elements that have a named, active steward; a structural readiness indicator rather than a quality outcome measure.

Data governance maturity model

A staged assessment of governance capability, typically from ad hoc through defined, managed, and optimized, used to prioritize improvements and set realistic targets.

Data definition approval

The governed decision that fixes a business term's meaning, calculation, and boundaries; approval authority should sit with the domain owner or a delegated definitions board.

Business glossary purpose

A controlled vocabulary of approved business terms with definitions, owners, and related data elements, used to align meaning across systems and reports.

Data catalog purpose

An inventory of data assets with metadata such as location, schema, ownership, sensitivity, and lineage, used for discovery, governance, and impact analysis.

Data lineage definition

A record of data's origin, movement, and transformation across systems and reports, supporting impact analysis, root-cause investigation, and regulatory traceability.

Data classification purpose

Assigning sensitivity levels, such as public, internal, confidential, and restricted, so that handling, access, and protection controls are proportionate and consistently applied.

Access approval authority

The role empowered to grant or deny data access for a domain, typically the data owner or a delegate, based on purpose, sensitivity, and least-privilege criteria.

Least privilege principle

Granting the minimum data access and permissions needed for a defined purpose and duration, reducing exposure and simplifying revocation when the need ends.

Governance KPI versus metric

A metric is any measured value; a KPI is a metric explicitly tied to a governance objective with a target and owner, used to judge program effectiveness.

Data stewardship escalation path

The defined route from steward to domain owner to governance council for issues exceeding thresholds, unclear ownership, or cross-domain conflict requiring a decision.

Governance operating model

The combination of decision rights, organizational structure, processes, and metrics that determines how data decisions are made and enforced across the enterprise.

Data quality rule ownership

Each quality rule must have a named owner who sets the threshold, reviews results, and is accountable for remediation when the rule fails in production.

Governance program charter

The document defining a governance program's scope, objectives, decision rights, membership, meeting cadence, and success measures, approved by executive sponsors.