Data Quality Non-Believers

Mar 18, 2010 by Phil Simon in Data Quality

“Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”

- Albert Einstein

Many people still echo Einstein’s sentiment–and this is not a good thing. In this post, I discuss data quality non-believers.

Data Quality Challenges

I keep reading post after post about DQ challenges. I even created a little Twitter list devoted to DQ experts. (Wow…I must be really serious about the topic, no? I mean…a whole Twitter list.)

Over the last few months, I have observed common themes from many different people on different sites. Perhaps the strongest sentiment is the difficulty experienced by many who understand the importance of DQ to convince those that don’t get it.

This continues to baffle me but I can relate. You see, I have seen first-hand how end users make important decisions irrespective of the data. Perhaps the most egregious line that I ever heard was from an HR Director who said in a meeting, “I don’t need data to tell me why people leave here.” Wow…a real life psychic. I quickly turned to her for financial advice. (Yes, I’m kidding.)

Gotta love that progressive type of thinking. (As an aside, she’s no longer with that company. One little victory…)

So, why do some people continue rely on gut instincts to explain customer churn, employee turnover, intelligent spending of corporate funds, or other KPIs.

Going Out on a Limb

Let me preface this section by stating that I’m going to make some pretty big generalizations here. I’m sure that you (yes, you) know people who disprove what I’m claiming. Nevertheless, here goes:

There are some people still stuck in an old school mentality. The very idea of data threatens them. Their idea of knowledge is experience, not information or data or some type of combination. They know what they know and they don’t need “data” to tell them any different. Their “value proposition” to their employers is that they know things that “data” cannot or will never know. So keep paying me.

Perhaps these people have been burned by data before. They know that their organizations’ data is, at best, questionable or incomplete. Perhaps they just don’t like numbers or having to analyze data.

Simon Says

Look, not everyone has to have a PhD in statistics to work with data. Nor am I saying that every decision needs to be put through the rigor of complicated analysis. I like the red stapler, ergo I’m buying the red stapler. But you can’t tell me that major decisions should be made independent of your data. If DQ is an issue, then make a plan to clean it up. Don’t continue to make dataless decisions.

Feedback

In the words of Pat Benatar, “Hit me with your best shot. Fire away…”

Tags: Data Quality, Pat Benatar

6 Responses to “Data Quality Non-Believers”

James Standen

Mar 18, 2010

Complete agreement. I call it dataphobia. Unfortunately, often the larger the office you have the more you have it. Corner offices are often the most infected with this disease.

But I’m certain this is changing- and many of the dataphobes will have to retire to their house in the Hamptons, because either the companies they are running are going to be purchased by competitors who understand data, or they are going out of business.

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Phil Simon

Mar 18, 2010

Let’s hope that things are changing, James. I agree that certain folks who occupy senior positions might not have grown up with readily accessible computers, apps, and data.

For what it’s worth, I’ve seen others far removed from the corner offices less than willing to get data religion.

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Jim Harris

Mar 22, 2010

“Excuse me, I believe you have my stapler…”

I believe — this was a good data quality post, Phil.

Best Regards,

Jim

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Jill Wanless

Mar 22, 2010

You’ve managed to gently state what I’ve wanted to say (rant about) for so long! It’s 2010 folks. I just can’t believe that we can build a station in space, but we still have people and organisations who don’t get that it’s all about the information!

I’ve got a few more Non-believers to add:
1/ Those that don’t get it – Business, data and technical analysts who write requirements without the proper data definitions, risks, impacts etc, because everyone knows what the data means right?

2/ Those that semi get it – Business and IT leaders who only care about delivery dates. Sure they meet the project deadlines, because the data driven changes (problem reports, change requests, batch and clean-up efforts after the fact) doesn’t impact their delivery dates. They are semi-believers, but because there is no impact or accountability on their part, they do nothing.

Thanks Phil.

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Phil Simon

Mar 22, 2010

Jim and Jill

Thanks for the comments.

Amazing how many people will like you when you throw a little Pat Benatar in!

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Geoff

Mar 29, 2010

I like it!

Although, I would say there’s an even more insidious problem out there and that is the person who doesn’t know what they don’t know.

Willingfully ignorant is bad, truly blind ignorance is worse.

In my view, the Data debate suffers from the same image problem as Accountancy. If you mention your profession at a party and you are met with A) a glazed look or B) flight, it’s means you can have the best arguments in the world and they will amount to nil.

Where’s the zazz?

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