# Certification, data quality warnings and data stewardship

*Tableau Consultant Study Guide · Establish Governance and Support Published Content · Last updated November 3, 2026 · https://www.certifyforce.com/study-guide/tableau-consultant/establish-governance-and-support-published-content/certification-data-quality-warnings-and-data-stewardship*

Build a data quality strategy from certification, data quality warnings (manual, monitoring and high visibility), sensitivity and custom labels, and the publishing and search habits that stop duplicate data sources, including who may set each label and which ones need Data Management.

- Certification: Salesforce Tableau Consultant
- Exam section: Establish Governance and Support Published Content
- Study guide: https://www.certifyforce.com/study-guide/tableau-consultant

**Official exam objective:**

> Recommend a strategy for ensuring data quality, including certifying data sources, minimizing data proliferation, and configuring data quality warnings.

## What the exam expects

- Decide who can certify a published data source, a virtual connection or a Catalog table, and which of these needs Data Management.
- Choose between a manual data quality warning, a monitoring warning and site-wide monitoring for a stated requirement.
- Use high visibility and the subscription site setting so warnings reach people who only read emails.
- Predict which labels flow to downstream content and which stay on the labelled asset.
- Recommend practices that reduce duplicate data sources: publishing, certification and Search for Data.

Key terms:
- **Data label:** metadata attached to a data asset; categories are certification, data quality warning, sensitivity and custom.
- **Certification:** a label marking an asset as trusted, shown as a green badge or check mark.
- **Data quality warning:** a label that tells users of an asset, and of everything downstream, about a known issue.
- **Monitoring quality warning:** a warning Tableau adds when an extract refresh or flow run fails and removes when it next succeeds.
- **Data proliferation:** duplicate data sources that confuse users, raise the chance of errors and consume resources.

## Key facts

| Fact | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Data Management exception | Certifying published data sources needs no Data Management | [Data Labels](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/dm_labels.htm) |
| Setting a quality warning | Administrator, or Overwrite on the asset | [Set a Data Quality Warning](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/dm_dqw.htm) |
| Certifying databases or tables | Catalog enabled; administrator or Set Permissions on the database | [Use Certification](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/datasource_certified.htm) |
| Certified data sources | Rank higher in search; added to recommended data sources | [Use Certification](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/datasource_certified.htm) |
| Inherited by downstream assets | Quality warnings and sensitivity labels | [Data Labels](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/dm_labels.htm) |
| Not inherited | Certification and custom-category labels | [Data Labels](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/dm_labels.htm) |
| Site-wide monitoring | Cloud October 2023 / Server 2023.3; on for new sites only | [Set a Data Quality Warning](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/dm_dqw.htm) |
| Warnings in subscription emails | High visibility only, after the site setting is on | [Set a Data Quality Warning](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/dm_dqw.htm) |
| Column warnings and virtual connection warnings | Don't appear in Tableau Desktop | [Set a Data Quality Warning](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/dm_dqw.htm) |
| Columns | Take every label except certification | [Data Labels](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/dm_labels.htm) |

## Check yourself

- Why might a quality warning badge show a number and a yellow colour?
- When did "Sensitive data" stop being a data quality warning?
- Which colour marks a high visibility sensitivity label?
- Which four data quality warnings are built in for users to set?

## Sources

- [Data Labels](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/dm_labels.htm)
- [Set a Data Quality Warning](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/dm_dqw.htm)
- [Use Certification to Help Users Find Trusted Data](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/datasource_certified.htm)
- [Governance in Tableau](https://help.tableau.com/current/blueprint/en-us/bp_governance_in_tableau.htm)
- [Publish a Data Source](https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/publish_datasources.htm)
- [License Data Management](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/dm_license.htm)
- [Set a Data Quality Warning (Tableau Cloud)](https://help.tableau.com/current/online/en-us/dm_dqw.htm)

## About the full unit

The "Core concepts", "Exam traps" and "Worked scenario" sections of this unit, its 7 linked practice questions, and unlimited timed mock exams are included with the Tableau Consultant pack (USD $19): https://www.certifyforce.com/practice-exams