What does data lineage describe?

Data lineage describes the movement of data from its origin to its final destination. This concept encapsulates the entire lifecycle of data, providing insight into where data comes from, how it has been transformed or processed along the way, and where it ultimately resides or is utilized. Understanding data lineage is essential for organizations as it helps ensure data integrity, compliance, and accountability. It enables teams to trace back through the various stages that data has gone through, which is crucial for debugging issues, ensuring regulatory compliance, and maintaining high-quality data management practices.

The other choices, while they pertain to data management practices, capture different aspects that do not fully encompass the definition of data lineage. Rather than focusing on the flow of data, the cleaning process, data quality assessment, or the relationship between data and metadata, lineage specifically emphasizes tracing the path of data itself throughout its lifecycle.