Source of Truth
The designated authoritative place or record a team relies on for a particular fact or decision.
Plain English
The place everyone should check for the current agreed information.
In context
A source of truth reduces conflicting copies when its scope owner update process and access are explicit.
Example
“The release tracker is the source of truth for rollout status.”
When you'll hear this
- project coordination
- data governance
- incident response
Common misunderstanding
Calling something the source of truth does not make it accurate unless ownership and maintenance are reliable.
Also known as
single source of truthSSOTauthoritative source
Commonly used by
Related terms
Updated: 2026-08-27
