What issue does data lineage help identify in downstream applications?

What issue does data lineage help identify in downstream applications?

• A. The source of data defects
• B. Network bandwidth usage
• C. User interface design flaws
• D. CPU temperature spikes

Answer: (A)

Data lineage identifies the origin of data defects by tracing data from its source through all transformations and into downstream applications. By mapping each step data passes through, you can see where a problem first occurred—whether in the source data, during a transformation, or in an integration step—so you can fix the root cause rather than just the symptoms in the downstream system. This root-cause capability is what makes data lineage essential for debugging data quality issues and for impact analysis when downstream reports or processes show anomalies. The other options don’t fit because network bandwidth relates to data flow capacity, user interface concerns focus on presentation, and CPU temperature spikes point to hardware or workload issues, not data provenance.

Data lineage identifies the origin of data defects by tracing data from its source through all transformations and into downstream applications. By mapping each step data passes through, you can see where a problem first occurred—whether in the source data, during a transformation, or in an integration step—so you can fix the root cause rather than just the symptoms in the downstream system. This root-cause capability is what makes data lineage essential for debugging data quality issues and for impact analysis when downstream reports or processes show anomalies. The other options don’t fit because network bandwidth relates to data flow capacity, user interface concerns focus on presentation, and CPU temperature spikes point to hardware or workload issues, not data provenance.