# How to: Use Lineage Effectively

We recommend the following best practices:

* Always check lineage before deleting assets
* Start investigations from Inventory → Asset → Lineage
* Use health tags + lineage together for prioritization
* Focus on assets with:
  * High downstream impact
  * Low usage (high cleanup ROI)

### Use Case: Impact Analysis

Before changing a dataset:

* Check downstream assets
* Understand how many reports will break
  * See if there is any activity on the reports
  * Look at the health signals of the report
* Start a [workflow](/guides/workflows.md) to notify the owners and other stakeholders of the dataset and report.

### Use Case: Cleanup & Cost Reduction

Go to Inventory and filter on unhealthy assets. Specifically, look for:

* Unused reports built on active models
* Models with no downstream usage

Then:

* Start a [workflow](/guides/workflows.md) to notify the owners and other stakeholders of the dataset and report.
* Archive or delete safely

### Use Case: Root Cause Analysis

If a report is broken:

* Trace upstream dependencies
* Identify whether the issue originated in the BI tool or futher upstream


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