Lineage and Impact Analysis Diagrams

Lineage and Impact Analysis (LIA) diagrams show the relationships among objects managed by OWB. These relationships are constructed by mappings and structural relationships (for example, a primary key and foreign key relationship). The lineage diagram for a particular object shows its source objects, and the impact diagram shows its targets.

Lineage and impact are mirror images of each other. If Object A is part of the lineage diagram of Object B, then Object B is part of the impact diagram of Object A. When you read a diagram from left to right, you are seeing impact. When you read it from right to left, you are seeing lineage.

For example, you might have a mapping that extracts data from a file and loads it into a table by way of an external table. This is the relationship:

flat_file > external_table > table