What are the common data metadata and data lineage standards and frameworks in your industry or domain?

1 Data metadata vs data lineage

Data metadata is the information that describes the characteristics, context, and structure of data. It can include technical details, such as data type, format, size, schema, and location, as well as business details, such as data owner, purpose, definition, and quality. Data metadata helps you understand what data you have, where it comes from, and how it can be used. Data lineage is the information that shows the history and transformation of data. It can include the source, destination, and flow of data, as well as the processes, applications, and dependencies that affect it. Data lineage helps you trace how data is created, modified, and consumed, and how it impacts your business outcomes.

2 Data metadata and data lineage benefits

Data metadata and data lineage can offer many advantages for data management and governance, such as increasing data quality and accuracy, improving data accessibility and usability, facilitating data compliance and security, and supporting data analysis and decision making. These benefits are achieved by identifying and resolving data issues, errors, and inconsistencies; enabling data discovery, cataloging, and search; ensuring data policies, standards, and regulations are followed; and providing data context, meaning, and trust.

3 Data metadata and data lineage challenges

Data metadata and data lineage can present some challenges for your data management and governance. These include managing the complexity and volume of data sources, systems, and processes, maintaining the currency and consistency of data metadata and data lineage, integrating and harmonizing data from different formats, models, and languages, and automating and scaling the collection, storage, and update of data metadata and data lineage.

4 Data metadata and data lineage standards

To leverage the advantages of data metadata and data lineage, you need to adopt some common standards and frameworks. For example, Dublin Core offers 15 core metadata elements to describe digital resources, ISO 11179 is a standard for managing metadata registries, DDI is a standard for describing data produced by surveys and other observational methods, PROV is a standard for representing and exchanging provenance information, and W3C Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT) is a standard for describing datasets and data services. These standards can help define, capture, store, and share your data metadata and data lineage.

5 Data metadata and data lineage frameworks

In addition to industry or domain standards, there are several frameworks that provide tools and methods for implementing and managing data metadata and data lineage. The Data Management Body of Knowledge (DMBOK) is a framework that covers the principles and practices of data management across 11 knowledge areas. The Common Data Model (CDM) defines standardized and extensible data schemas for data integration and analytics. Apache Atlas is a scalable and open platform for metadata management and governance, while Apache NiFi offers a graphical user interface for designing, managing, and monitoring data flows with the ability to capture and visualize data lineage.

6 Data metadata and data lineage tips

To help you get started or improve your data metadata and data lineage practices, here are some tips to consider. First, define your requirements and objectives based on your business needs and goals. Then, establish policies and standards based on industry or domain best practices and regulations. Furthermore, select tools and platforms based on your data environment and architecture. Additionally, automate collection and update of data metadata and data lineage as much as possible to minimize manual effort and errors. Finally, monitor and audit your data metadata and data lineage regularly to ensure accuracy and consistency.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?