Simply stated, data lineage describes the data’s origins, where it moves and what happens to it over time. In some environments there are specific requirements for the data lineage and its provenance. This is often the case with financial institutions that have to satisfy regulatory requirements relating to data used for investment purposes.
At one level data lineage may seem rather mundane, but the reality is that without a means to fully document it there is no way to be able to validate it. What appears in a field of a report can be nothing more than an item that’s in a database table such as Order Date or Unit Price. But it could also be something slightly more complex such as a revenue calculation.
Cognos provides a capability within Cognos Connection for looking at data lineage but it’s limited. While you can see it for a report, it shows it for the model items not the report items so it’s not a complete picture. And even if that were done it’s likely you would miss data items used in calculations or calculations embedded in other calculations.
NetVisn lineage documents references between items on a report, report item to models references, and model references to databases, tables and columns. It covers everything in terms of metadata management.
This video demonstrates how you can view and manage data lineage and dependency in your Cognos environment more efficiently with the unique features only available with NetVisn.