What are the core components of a data governance program?

• A. Data stewardship roles, data policies, data catalog/metadata, and data security controls.
• B. Data catalog/metadata, data lineage, and data backups.
• C. Data stewardship roles, data policies, data quality management, data lifecycle, and data catalog/metadata.
• D. Data encryption standards and regulatory reporting.

Answer: (C)

In data governance, the program is built around establishing clear accountability, formal rules, and ways to understand and manage data across its life. The best combination includes data stewardship roles, data policies, data quality management, data lifecycle, and data catalog/metadata. Data stewardship roles assign responsibility for data assets, making sure someone is accountable for data quality, access, and usage. Data policies set the standards and rules for how data is created, stored, classified, protected, and used, which guides consistent practices across the organization. Data quality management puts ongoing processes in place to ensure data is accurate, complete, consistent, and timely, which is essential for trusted decision-making. The data lifecycle component ensures data is governed from creation through retention and eventual disposal, with appropriate controls at each stage. Data catalog/metadata provides documentation of what the data means, where it comes from, who owns it, and how it’s related to other data, enabling discovery and proper interpretation by users.

Other options miss one or more of these critical elements. They might emphasize security controls, backups, or reporting rather than the full governance scope, or they omit governance-instrumental pieces like data quality, lifecycle management, or explicit stewardship, which are essential to a holistic data governance program.