Data flows are a type of data lineage documentation that depicts how data moves through business processes and systems. End-to-end data flows illustrate where the data originated, where it is stored and used, and how it is transformed as it moves inside and between diverse processes and systems. Data lineage analysis can help explain the state of data at a given point in the data flow.

Data flows map and document relationships between data and

• Applications within a business process

• Data stores or databases in an environment

• Network segments (useful for security mapping)

• Business roles, depicting which roles have responsibility for creating, updating, using and deleting data (CRUD)

• Locations where local differences occur

Data flows can be documented at different levels of detail: Subject Area, business entity, or even the attribute level. Systems can be represented by network segments, platforms, common application sets, or individual servers. Data flows can be represented by two-dimensional matrices (this figure) or in data flow diagrams (next week's figure).