DA0-002 Data Governance Practice Question
A data analyst at a pharmaceutical company is asked to create a report on clinical trial adverse events. The report will be shared with the FDA. The analyst must ensure that the data is accurate, complete, and traceable to source documents. Which data governance practice is most critical to meet these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is selecting data masking or versioning as the primary governance practice, when the FDA's core requirement is traceability, which lineage uniquely provides.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Establishing data lineage that tracks the origin and transformation of each data element from source to report.
Data lineage is the most critical practice because it provides an auditable trail from source documents to the final report, ensuring that every data element can be traced and verified. This directly supports the FDA's requirements for accuracy, completeness, and traceability, making it indispensable for regulatory submissions.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Establishing data lineage that tracks the origin and transformation of each data element from source to report.
Why this is correct
Data lineage provides a complete audit trail showing how data flows from source documents to the final report, including transformations. This traceability is essential for regulatory submissions like FDA reports, where accuracy and completeness must be verifiable. It allows auditors to confirm that no unauthorized changes occurred and that data integrity is maintained.
- ✗
Implementing data versioning to maintain historical copies of the report and underlying datasets.
Why it's wrong here
Data versioning preserves historical states but does not show how data was transformed or where it originated. While useful for reproducibility, it does not provide the end-to-end traceability required by the FDA to link report figures back to source documents. Therefore, it is not the most critical practice for this scenario.
- ✗
Conducting a manual review of the report by a second analyst before submission.
Why it's wrong here
Manual review can catch errors but is not a systematic governance practice that ensures traceability to source documents. It also does not provide an auditable record of data transformations. While valuable, it is not the most critical practice for meeting FDA requirements for accuracy and traceability.
- ✗
Applying data masking to protect patient identifiers in the report.
Why it's wrong here
Data masking protects privacy but is orthogonal to accuracy, completeness, and traceability. The FDA may require de-identified data, but masking alone does not ensure that the data is correct or traceable. The scenario emphasizes accuracy and traceability, so masking is not the primary governance practice needed.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official CompTIA exam blueprint
This DA0-002 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the DA0-002 exam.