Data lineage is the full documented history of a data element: where it originated, how it was transformed, through which systems it flowed, and who accessed it at each stage. It is the audit trail that answers: "Can I trust this data, and can I prove why?"

A data governance framework is the formal system of policies, standards, roles, responsibilities, and processes that defines how an organisation manages its data as a strategic asset. It answers three questions: who owns the data, what rules govern it, and how compliance is enforced and measured.