Importance of source traceability
Our analysis
Source traceability is most critical for code repos and customer support docs; coworker knowledge is trusted by reputation.
Question
For each source you selected, how important is it that you can quickly check where the information came from before relying on it for work? By “check where the information came from,” we mean being able to quickly open or review the original source, context, citation, document, message, ticket, dashboard, or person behind the information.
- scale
- Optional
- v2026.1
- Carries forward KnowledgeQ
Data
| Very important | Important | Somewhat important | Not very important | Least important | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Code repositories or code comments | 48.1% | 29.9% | 14.4% | 5.8% | 1.7% |
| Coworkers or teammates | 26.8% | 29.4% | 24.6% | 14.9% | 4.4% |
| Customer, support, or sales information | 44.2% | 31.4% | 14.6% | 6.7% | 3.0% |
| Internal chat tools, such as Slack or Teams | 31.5% | 33.8% | 22.9% | 9.5% | 2.3% |
| Internal documentation (i.e. Design, product, or planning docs), wiki, or knowledge base | 36.8% | 32.5% | 19.7% | 9.2% | 1.8% |
| Manager or leadership | 30.8% | 28.4% | 22.3% | 14.0% | 4.5% |
| Meeting notes or transcripts | 34.4% | 34.6% | 20.5% | 7.5% | 3.1% |
| None of these | 36.0% | 13.5% | 28.1% | 12.4% | 10.1% |
| Not sure | 25.0% | 30.0% | 27.9% | 4.3% | 12.9% |
| Official docs | 43.7% | 26.8% | 14.7% | 10.0% | 4.8% |
| Past decisions or architecture records | 36.5% | 33.7% | 21.8% | 6.2% | 1.8% |
| Product, vendor, or API documentation | 43.4% | 27.7% | 16.2% | 9.1% | 3.7% |
| Project management or ticketing tools | 38.5% | 36.7% | 17.5% | 5.4% | 1.8% |
| Stack Overflow | 32.7% | 35.5% | 20.7% | 8.7% | 2.4% |
| Vendor forum | 37.3% | 32.9% | 20.5% | 6.2% | 3.1% |
Use this data
The Markdown table shows one column per segment; the CSV and JSON carry every measure.
Response data is released under the ODbL 1.0, which asks that you attribute it.
Structured for code, with the question, the year and the source url alongside the numbers.
A formatted table, ready to paste into a document, an issue or a prompt.
Spreadsheet
.csv is a plain text format which most spreadsheet software can open.