What is meant by the term "data lineage"?

The term "data lineage" refers to the process of tracking the flow of data from its origin to its final destination. This includes understanding where the data originates, how it moves through various systems, and any transformations it undergoes along the way. By capturing this information, organizations can gain insights into their data's journey, ensuring data integrity, compliance, and effective data governance.

Data lineage is crucial for several reasons, including improving the understanding of data workflows, identifying potential issues in data quality, and providing transparency and traceability in data management practices. It allows data professionals to trace back through the data lifecycle, helping to identify any changes or errors at each stage, which is essential for maintaining accuracy and reliability in data analysis and reporting.

The other options relate to different aspects of data management but do not align with the definition of data lineage. Storing data in various formats pertains to data storage solutions and formats. Cleaning data from old sources focuses on the process of data cleansing—removing or correcting incorrect data within datasets. Visualizing changes in data over time is more about data analytics and how data trends and variations are represented graphically, rather than tracing the lifecycle of the data itself.