Informatica CDGC Foundation study plan

Informatica CDGC Foundation · Give each week a clear focus.

8 weeks · About 7 hours per week

Week 1

Data Governance & Catalog

Map the CDGC capability landscape: define what a data catalog, a governance operating model, and a metadata repository each do and how they interlock
Distinguish technical, business, and operational metadata and classify 15 sample assets into those categories
Describe the end-to-end metadata ingestion lifecycle from source connection through curation to consumer search

A one-page concept map of the CDGC capability landscape with every term defined in your own words

Week 2

Configure a source connection and run metadata ingestion for at least one relational and one file-based source
Explain how scheduled versus on-demand ingestion jobs differ and when each is appropriate
Identify common ingestion failures (permissions, driver, schema drift) and write the remediation step for each

An ingestion run log for two source types with a troubleshooting table of five failure modes

Week 3

Define business glossary terms, link them to technical assets, and explain why glossary-to-asset linkage matters for stewardship
Describe how data domains and asset types are modeled and how classification drives catalog navigation
Explain the difference between a glossary term, a data element, and a policy, and give one example of each

A 10-term glossary in a spreadsheet with each term mapped to at least one cataloged asset

Week 4

Describe how data quality rules attach to cataloged assets and how scores surface in the catalog
Explain lineage capture: what upstream and downstream lineage shows and how column-level lineage differs from table-level
Trace a reported data issue from a dashboard back to a source table using lineage concepts

A written lineage walkthrough of one hypothetical report-to-source path, plus a quality-rule summary

Week 5

Define the stewardship model: data owner, data steward, and custodian responsibilities and how they differ
Describe the workflow for a business term request, from submission through approval to publication
Explain how certifications, endorsements, and ratings are used to signal trusted assets

A responsibility matrix (RACI-style) covering owner, steward, and custodian across five governance activities

Week 6

Describe policy and rule management: how governance policies connect to cataloged assets and controls
Explain how to search, filter, and browse the catalog effectively, including saved searches and asset collections
Describe how user roles and permissions shape what a steward, a consumer, and an administrator can see and do

A search-and-navigation cheat sheet with six concrete catalog queries and the expected filter path for each

Week 7

Synthesize the full lifecycle: ingest, curate, classify, govern, and consume metadata in one narrative
Work through 40 practice-style questions on catalog and governance concepts and log every miss with a root cause
Re-derive weak concepts from first principles instead of memorizing question wording

A scored practice set with a written root-cause note for every incorrect answer

Week 8

Review the error log from week 7 and close every remaining conceptual gap
Rehearse explaining the governance operating model and lineage in plain language, out loud, in under three minutes each
Take a timed full-length mock and confirm pacing leaves time to review flagged items

A final gap-closure list showing each weak area, the fix applied, and a re-test score

Week 2: You can run an ingestion job on a new source without consulting notes and explain what metadata it produced

Week 4: You can trace lineage from a report to a source system on a whiteboard and name the quality rules protecting that path

Week 6: You can state the difference between owner, steward, and custodian in one sentence each and apply them to a new scenario

Week 8: Timed mock score is stable and every item in your error log has a written resolution