🧩 Communicating Lineage & Data Quality to Stakeholders

Track A (Business) — Part 4 of the Entity‑First series

Series navigation: A1 — Why We Need a Business‑Friendly Data Transformation Model • A2 — Entities, Subject Areas & Transformation Steps • B1 — How dbt & SQLMesh Organize Metadata and Code • B2 — Designing an Entity‑First YAML → SQL Generator • B3 — Advanced Patterns: Incremental, SCD2 & PIT • B4 — Diagram Generation & Auto‑Docs • A4 (you are here)

Summary

Stakeholders don’t want pipelines — they want trust. This article shows how to turn Entity‑First metadata into clear lineage views, simple quality signals, and business‑readable documentation that builds trust without drowning people in technical detail.

1) What business stakeholders actually need

• Where did this number come from? (upstream sources & transformations)
• Can I trust it right now? (freshness, tests, incidents)
• Who owns it and how do I request changes? (contacts & SLAs)
• What does each field mean? (glossary & examples)

We’ll meet these needs with a one‑page Data Product README, a lineage snapshot, and a quality status widget — all generated from the same metadata used to produce SQL.