DQ-Tip: “Undisputable fact about the value and use of data…”

Data Quality (DQ) Tips is an OCDQ regular segment. Each DQ-Tip is a clear and concise data quality pearl of wisdom.

“Undisputable fact about the value and use of data—any business process that is based on the assumption of having access to trustworthy, accurate, and timely data will produce invalid, unexpected, and meaningless results if this assumption is false.”

This DQ-Tip is from the excellent book Master Data Management and Data Governance by Alex Berson and Larry Dubov.

As data quality professionals, our strategy for quantifying and qualifying the business value of data is an essential tenet of how we make the pitch to get executive management to invest in enterprise data quality improvement initiatives.

However, all too often, the problem when we talk about data with executive management is exactly that—we talk about data.

Let’s instead follow the sage advice of Berson and Dubov. Before discussing data quality, let’s research the data quality assumptions underlying core business processes. This due diligence will allow us to frame data quality discussions within a business context by focusing on how the organization is using its data to support its business processes, which will allow us to qualify and quantify the business value of having high quality data as a strategic corporate asset.

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DQ-Tip: “There is no point in monitoring data quality...”

DQ-Tip: “Don't pass bad data on to the next person...”

DQ-Tip: “...Go talk with the people using the data”

DQ-Tip: “Data quality is about more than just improving your data...”

DQ-Tip: “Start where you are...”