This is this stage's numeric position in the sequence of steps the state machine executes. Deleting the policy from the fabric happens as a short ordered sequence of named steps — e.g. removing it from fabric A, then fabric B — and this record is one of those steps, tracked separately so a stall or retry can be pinpointed to the exact stage it happened at. Stage order 1 would be the first step attempted (e.g. resolving the policy against fabric A) and a higher number like 3 would be a later step such as final verification, so admins can tell how far a rollout got before stalling.