CompTIA Data+ (DA0-002)Data Governance, Quality and ControlsMedium
An organization's CRM, ERP, and support ticketing systems each store a different version of the same customer's mailing address. As part of a master data management initiative, the team applies survivorship rules to select the most trusted value from each source and produces one authoritative customer record used across all systems. This resulting record is best described as which of the following?
- AReference table
- BData mart
- CGolden record
- DMetadata catalog
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Golden record
The golden record is the single, trusted, authoritative version of a data entity created by merging and reconciling data from multiple source systems using survivorship rules, a core deliverable of master data management.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. A reference table stores standardized lookup values, not merged customer records.
- B. A data mart is a subject-specific subset of a data warehouse, unrelated to record merging.
- D. A metadata catalog documents data assets, not the merged record itself.
Golden Record
A single, authoritative version of a data entity created by reconciling and merging duplicate or conflicting records from multiple source systems using survivorship rules.
- Core output of master data management (MDM)
- Created via matching and merging duplicate records
- Survivorship rules determine which source value 'wins'
Memory trick: MDM builds the 'golden' trophy record from many silver duplicates.