A method for deriving data provenance information corresponding to a workflow process having lower-level workflow processes includes deriving internal provenance information for data pertaining to at least one of the lower-level workflow processes, identifying data objects that are shared between at least a pair of lower-level workflow processes to derive external provenance information for the identified data objects, in response to a user-submitted query, using the internal and external provenance information to retrieve the data provenance information for the workflow process, and outputting the derived data provenance to a user.