The required capability is Metadata lineage and impact analysis. Changing a business definition can affect far more than the glossary entry itself. The organization needs to know which physical fields, transformation rules, ETL jobs, calculations, reports, dashboards, analytical models, and downstream datasets depend on the current definition.
Lineage shows where data originates and how it flows and transforms. Impact analysis follows those relationships forward to determine what will be affected by a proposed change.
This prevents a common Data Quality failure in which a definition changes in one area while downstream systems continue applying the old interpretation. The result can be technically correct calculations that are semantically inconsistent.
A governed change should therefore update the business glossary, transformation metadata, Data Quality rules, reporting definitions, and affected documentation in a coordinated manner. Appropriate Data Stewards and Data Owners should approve the new meaning and effective date.
DAMA's framework describes Metadata Management as enabling understanding through definitions, lineage, and usage across systems, while the revised Chapter 13 explicitly strengthens the Data Quality–Metadata relationship.
Reference Topics: DAMA-DMBOK2 — Metadata Management; Data Lineage; Impact Analysis; Business Glossary; Data Quality Consistency.
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