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A Daily Lexicon of Trustworthy Data

005·75

lineage

/ˈlɪn.i.ɪdʒ/ - n.

1 [colloq.] A map of where the number came from, consulted exclusively after it is already wrong.Keep. Punchy.This is the problem.

Working definition

2. A traced record of how data flows through transformations from source to destination, showing each column's upstream dependencies.

Filed

Seen in the wild · 7

Article 10 Quietly Bills You for the Data Catalog Nobody FundedProcess Debt
We Bought Active Metadata to Avoid Deciding Who Owns the DataShiny Object Pursuit
NIST Asked Where the Data Came From; The Pipeline Went QuietOwner Missing
The Lineage Graph Is Free Now, Right Up to Where It HurtsProcess Debt
New AI rules ask you to govern data you never classified. The bill comes due first.Business Sense Required
Active metadata is everywhere. The people it describes are still somewhere else.Shiny Object Pursuit
Lineage is mandatory for the audit and partial in practice.Owner Missing

See also

pipeline monitoringA wall of green panels confirming the job ran, and silent on whether it was right.
schema driftThe source renamed a column and told no one, in the same spirit it once promised the contract was stable.
transformationWhere the business logic lives, defined by whoever happened to write the join and unavailable for comment.