Kildeverdi

Kildeverdi, or source value, is the original value of a data element as it exists in the source system before any processing, transformation, normalization, or aggregation. It is used to ensure traceability and to support data quality assessments by providing a reference point for comparisons with transformed data.

In practice, kildeverdi is an important concept in data governance, ETL processes and data catalogs. It enables data lineage by showing where a value came from, when it was loaded, and under which source system or data source. Organizations may store the kildeverdi alongside the processed value or log it in an audit trail to preserve an immutable record of the original data.

Characteristics and best practices include preserving kildeverdi when possible, along with metadata such as a timestamp, source system identifier, and data type. This helps maintain auditability and reproducibility of analyses. It is important to manage privacy and compliance concerns, as the original data may contain sensitive information. Differences between the source value and the processed value should be documented to prevent misinterpretation.

Example: for a customer dataset, the source value of a birthdate might be 1985-07-23 as captured by the CRM system. After processing, the stored value could be reformatted to 23/07/1985 or stored in a separate derived field, while the kildeverdi remains available for auditing purposes.

See also data provenance, data lineage, audit trail, data quality, and ETL.