What is the primary role of a data steward?

• A. Data steward handles hardware maintenance.
• B. Data steward creates marketing reports.
• C. A data steward is responsible for data assets’ quality, policies, and usage; ensures data is accurate, timely, complete, and consistent.
• D. Data steward manages network security.

Answer: (C)

Data stewardship is about managing data as a valuable asset and putting governance in place to keep it reliable. The primary role is to define data meanings and rules, establish policies for how data can be used, and ensure data quality across the organization. A data steward is responsible for making sure data assets are accurate, timely, complete, and consistent, which supports trustworthy analytics and decision-making.

Other options don’t fit this role: hardware maintenance deals with physical infrastructure, marketing reports are analytic outputs rather than governance, and network security focuses on protecting systems rather than governing data quality and usage.