Does high quality data contain traceability information?

[Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org>]

Hi Folks,

Traceability = who/what is the source of the data.

Do you put traceability information in your XML documents?

Consider this XML document about a runway at an airport in Jamaica:

      <airport>
         <name>NORMAN MANLEY INTL</name>
         <runway>
            <runwayLength>08909</runwayLength>
         </runway>
      </airport>

Who/what is the source of runwayLength=08909? No idea. There is no trace information in that XML document.

Further, if there was traceability information, what would it be? Information about a person? A document? A country? An organization?

I am inclined to believe that traceability information is not useful. What do you think? Do you put traceability information in your XML documents? If yes, what kind of traceability information?

/Roger