Data and Information Inventory and Attributes - Relationship attributes for the Data and Information Inventory

Data and Information Inventory and Attributes

Chapter 30. Relationship attributes for the Data and Information Inventory

Relationship attributes connect each Data and Information type to related Noun Instances in other inventories — the applications, capabilities, integrations, data stores, and deployment pipelines that produce, consume, store, and move it.

Every attribute in this category is Calculated or Derived from records in other inventories, with the exception of Housing Data Stores and Source of Truth Store which are manually populated at Walk maturity. Do not create data entry fields for any Calculated or Derived attribute listed here.

Attribute Name	Maturity	Description and Notes
Authoritative Application	Run	Description — The Application in the Applications Inventory that is the system of record for this Data and Information type — the application that implements the Authoritative Source. Benefit(s) — Connects the organizational accountability (Authoritative Source) to the technical implementation (Authoritative Application). Enables APM to identify which applications are systems of record and the governance obligations that entails. Source — Derived. Notes — Derived from the Applications Inventory: the application designated in the Authoritative Source attribute, matched to its Applications Inventory record by Semantic ID. One of the few Derived attributes that is also informed by a Crawl-level manual attribute (Authoritative Source).
Housing Data Stores [Multi-Value]	Walk	Description — The Data Stores (e.g., databases, object stores, file systems) that contain instances of this Data and Information type, referenced by Semantic ID from the Data Stores Inventory. Captures all stores holding copies regardless of whether they are the master copy. Benefit(s) — Enables physical data distribution analysis: how many data stores hold copies of this type? Where is this data physically located? Which data stores would be affected by a change to this type’s definition or schema? Source — Manual. Examples — DAT-STORE-POSTGRES-CRM; DAT-STORE-DW-ANALYTICS; DAT-STORE-S3-ARCHIVE Notes — Multi-value, semicolon-delimited. Distinct from Source of Truth Store, which identifies the single master copy. Housing Data Stores lists all stores; Source of Truth Store identifies the canonical one.
Source of Truth Store	Walk	Description — The single Data Store designated as the physical master copy of this Data and Information type — the specific database, object store, or file system where the authoritative version lives. Must be one of the values in Housing Data Stores. Benefit(s) — Resolves the physical data residency question that Authoritative Source leaves open. An enterprise may designate Salesforce as the Authoritative Source (organizational accountability) while the actual master data physically lives in a specific PostgreSQL database that Salesforce writes to. These are different governance answers to different questions — both are required for complete data governance. Conflating them is one of the most common and costly data governance mistakes. Source — Manual. Examples — DAT-STORE-POSTGRES-CRM, DAT-STORE-ORACLE-ERP-PROD, DAT-STORE-DYNAMODB-ORDERS Notes — Single value — exactly one Data Store is the Source of Truth. If multiple stores claim to be equally authoritative, that is a governance finding requiring resolution, not a reason to list multiple values here.
Producing Capabilities [Multi-Value]	Run	Description — The business Capabilities that produce this Data and Information type as an output, referenced by Semantic ID from the Capabilities Inventory. Benefit(s) — Identifies the organizational capabilities that are the business source of this data type. When a capability changes or is retired, this attribute immediately surfaces which data types it produces and therefore which downstream consumers are affected. Source — Derived. Notes — Derived from the Capabilities Inventory: the Capabilities whose Key Output Data and Information attribute references this type’s Semantic ID.
Consuming Capabilities [Multi-Value]	Run	Description — The business Capabilities that consume this Data and Information type as an input, referenced by Semantic ID from the Capabilities Inventory. Benefit(s) — Surfaces the downstream capability dependencies on this data type. A data quality failure in a high-consumption type impairs every capability that depends on it. Source — Derived. Notes — Derived from the Capabilities Inventory: the Capabilities whose Key Input Data and Information attribute references this type’s Semantic ID.
Related Integrations [Multi-Value]	Run	Description — The Integrations that carry this Data and Information type as their Payload, referenced by Semantic ID from the Integrations Inventory. Benefit(s) — The primary data flow lineage view: where does this data type move across the enterprise? Enables impact analysis when a type definition changes — every integration carrying it may require payload mapping updates. Surfaces sensitive data flows that require compliance governance. Source — Derived. Notes — Derived from the Integrations Inventory: all Integration records whose Payload attribute matches this type’s Display Name or Semantic ID. When the Integrations Inventory is mature, this derivation can be automated.
Related Systems Deployment Pipelines [Multi-Value]	Run	Description — The Systems Deployment Pipelines that move or process this Data and Information type across environments, referenced by Semantic ID from the Systems Deployment Pipelines Inventory. Benefit(s) — Surfaces cross-environment data flows involving this type — particularly Production-to-non-Production flows that require data sanitization governance. Connects data type governance to deployment pipeline governance. Source — Derived. Notes — Derived from the Systems Deployment Pipelines Inventory when published. Refer to the IF4IT Enterprise Inventory Management Best Practices document.

Legal Disclaimers