Data Lineage Trust & Impact Analysis Survey

Welcome to the Data Lineage Trust & Impact Analysis Survey. This survey explores your experience with data lineage tools and impact analysis workflows over the last 30 days. Your responses will help identify opportunities to improve lineage accuracy, tooling, and change management processes. Participation is voluntary and you may stop at any time. All responses are confidential and will be reported in aggregate only. There are no right or wrong answers — we are interested in your honest experience. Estimated time: 7–9 minutes.

In the last 30 days, how often did you use data lineage or impact analysis tools?

• Daily
• Several times a week
• Weekly
• Every few weeks
• Monthly or less
• I did not use them in the last 30 days

Which systems did you use for data lineage or impact analysis in the last 30 days? Select all that apply.

• Data catalog (e.g., DataHub, Collibra, Alation)
• dbt docs
• OpenLineage-based tooling
• In-house lineage service
• BI lineage (e.g., Looker, Power BI, Tableau)
• Graph database or store
• Custom SQL or notebooks
• Other (please specify)

Overall, how much do you trust the accuracy of data lineage for your work over the last 30 days?

How confident are you in the accuracy of column-level lineage information you have access to?

How confident are you in lineage coverage across different systems and platforms in your organization?

How confident are you in the timeliness of lineage updates (i.e., that lineage reflects recent changes)?

How confident are you in the accuracy of ownership and contact metadata associated with lineage?

In the last 30 days, approximately how many times did lineage inaccuracies or gaps cause you to redo work?

• 0 times
• 1–2 times
• 3–5 times
• 6–10 times
• 11 or more times
• Not sure

How would you rate the speed of completing a typical impact analysis over the last 30 days?

Which best describes the focus of your most recent impact analysis in the last 30 days?

• Upstream schema change
• Downstream dashboard or report change
• Production incident or root-cause analysis
• Cost or performance optimization
• Access or governance change
• Other (please specify)

For your most recent impact analysis, how confident were you that you identified all affected assets?

On average, approximately how long did it take you to complete an impact analysis over the last 30 days?

• Under 15 minutes
• 15–30 minutes
• 31–60 minutes
• 1–2 hours
• More than 2 hours
• Not sure

What are the biggest blockers to trustworthy lineage and efficient impact analysis for you? Select all that apply.

• Incomplete coverage
• Stale or delayed updates
• Unclear ownership or contacts
• Low metadata quality
• Tool usability or learnability
• Missing column-level lineage
• Access or permissions issues
• Query parsing limitations
• Competing priorities or time constraints
• Other (please specify)

Which methods do you use to validate or cross-check lineage information when making decisions? Select all that apply.

• Compare with query logs
• Manual SQL tracing
• Ask a subject matter expert
• Review dbt tests or data tests
• Graph traversal checks
• Cross-environment diffs
• Other (please specify)
• I don't validate lineage

What lineage update freshness do you typically need to trust lineage data for impact analysis?

• Real-time (under 5 minutes)
• Hourly
• Daily
• Weekly
• No strict requirement

Rank the following outcomes by importance for your work (drag to reorder; 1 = most important).

1. Accurate coverage
2. Faster impact scoping
3. Fewer false positives
4. Ease of use
5. Clear ownership links
6. Proactive change alerts

If you could change one thing to improve lineage trust or impact analysis at your organization, what would it be?

Briefly describe a recent case (within the last 30 days) where lineage information either helped or misled your analysis. What happened, and how was it resolved?

Thank you for sharing your experiences. I'd like to explore a few of your answers in more depth. Based on what you've shared, could you walk me through a specific moment where lineage data influenced a decision you made — and what the outcome was?

What is your primary role?

• Data engineer
• Analytics engineer
• Data analyst / BI developer
• Data scientist / ML practitioner
• Data platform / Infrastructure
• Product manager
• People manager / Leader
• Other

How many years have you worked with data professionally?

• Less than 1 year
• 1–2 years
• 3–5 years
• 6–10 years
• 11+ years
• Prefer not to say

Approximately how large is your organization?

• 1–49
• 50–249
• 250–999
• 1,000–4,999
• 5,000+
• Prefer not to say

Which industry best describes your organization?

• Technology
• Financial services
• Retail / CPG
• Healthcare / Life sciences
• Manufacturing
• Media / Entertainment
• Public sector / Education
• Other
• Prefer not to say

Which region do you primarily work in?

• North America
• Europe
• Asia
• Latin America
• Middle East / Africa
• Oceania
• Prefer not to say

Thank you for completing this survey. Your feedback will directly inform improvements to lineage tooling and workflows. If you have any questions, please contact [survey administrator email].