Audit trail
A record of what was changed in a dataset, when, and why, kept so that someone else can check the work later.
Cleaning without an audit trail asks everyone downstream to take the result on trust. With one, a surprising number can be traced back to the change that produced it.
See also
- ProvenanceWhere a value came from and what has been done to it since: the source file, the steps applied, and who or what applied them.
- ValidationChecking values against rules, such as a date being in the past or a state code being on the allowed list, and reporting what fails.