Company
Date Published
Author
Gleb Mezhanskiy, Kira Furuichi
Word count
527
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

Data lineage is crucial for understanding the transformation of raw data into usable models within data pipelines, often visualized as directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) with cataloging and metadata for comprehensive insight. dbt, both as an open-source tool and a SaaS platform, is widely used by data engineers for data transformation and takes advantage of its native data lineage features for data discovery and impact analysis. Lineage tools are essential for identifying downstream impacts to prevent deployment issues, enable root cause analysis during incidents, and assist in data discovery by tracing upstream dependencies for decision-making. While dbt's native lineage offers valuable insights, enhancing it with robust column-level lineage and proactive impact analysis testing can further support data teams in ensuring data quality and reliability.