Principles of Data Management

IMPROVING DATA QUALITY

In their ‘Data Quality and Integrity’ report, the Butler Group (2004) reported that:

Too many businesses are caught up in a cycle of managing the downstream impact of data quality with disproportionate resources when compared to implementing a proactive, ongoing data quality strategy. In short, data quality has to start before the physical data actually exists: prevention is better than cure.

This implies that to achieve effective, enduring data quality an enterprise needs to implement a set of procedures and a culture within the organisation that promotes and sustains good-quality data. Data quality must be the responsibility of a senior business manager. There is no point in having a project to cleanse the data without ...