How Can You Ensure the Readiness of Your Data During Data Migration?

Jun 14, 2013 by Dylan Jones

Are you embarking on a data migration in the near future? If so, there is one nagging question that will loom across every stage leading up to the final moment of truth as your data finally lands in the target system:

“Will the migrated data be able to support our business functions post-migration?”

Introducing a New Data Quality Dimension: Irrelevance

Jun 07, 2013 by Dylan Jones

Do you want to know what one of the single largest causes of bad data is?

Irrelevant data.

Irrelevant data has no value or place within your business, yet for many reasons it is still being maintained (badly).

Poor Quality Data Isn’t a Pitfall, but an Opportunity to Learn

May 31, 2013 by Dylan Jones

Companies across the globe perceive bad data quality as a negative. We use terms like “cleansing” and “defect removal” to describe some of the core activities involved when improving data quality.

The problem is that many people don’t stop to ask, “How did our data get into this state? What is this poor quality data telling me about the people, processes and technologies that helped create it?”

Making Information Accuracy BAU

May 24, 2013 by Dylan Jones

According to surveys within the IAIDQ group on LinkedIn, most data quality practitioners consider accuracy to be the most important data quality dimension.

This makes sense, of course, but because true accuracy is often difficult to measure (unless we have a verifiable reference source), accuracy is often, ironically, one of the dimensions that we measure far less than completeness or consistency.

Data Quality, Trust and Consumer Behaviour

May 10, 2013 by Dylan Jones

Most businesses obsess over their sales performances. Nowhere is this taken to more extremes than the retail sector. They increasingly employ ever more sophisticated means to track, cajole, entice, motivate and understand their consumer purchasing behaviour.

Why Poor Data Quality is a Business Certainty

May 03, 2013 by Dylan Jones

Although I do far less on-the-ground consulting than I used to, I still occasionally get to sample the delights of walking into an organisation, performing a data quality assessment and watching the occasional jaw hit the table when the client sees the actual state of their data.

Where to Start with Overloading

Apr 26, 2013 by Dylan Jones

When we design systems, there is always a desire to build something that will support the business for some considerable time. A lot of banks, for example, still run on mainframe systems that have banking software that goes back literally decades.

Want to Become a Better Data Quality Practitioner? Change Your Lens

Apr 19, 2013 by Dylan Jones

How do you become a better data quality professional? I get asked this question a lot and it’s often by those who are looking to learn new skills in technology, tactics and methodologies for data quality.

Decision-Making and the Invisible Information Chain

Apr 12, 2013 by Dylan Jones

Business leaders and managers at all levels within an organisation make hundreds of important decisions throughout the year and nearly all of them are driven by data.