Data quality remains a chronic problem for many in spite of 20 years of effort. A recent study found only 17% of organizations reported that their Data Quality improved over the last three years.
Wow. That is bad.
Data Continues to Grow
Considering the volume of Data continues to grow exponentially, headway on improving Data Quality is at a standstill. It is not just that Data is wrong, or incomplete. Data inconsistency erodes all trust in a very public way. Data inconsistency is when different reports or data extracts have conflicting numbers for the same KPI. Significant effort is expended re-verifying data before it is used in decision making. It delays the timeliness and effectiveness of decisions.
Low trust is the cultural outcome of poor Data Quality, meaning decision makers continue to make gut based decisions.
The means to improve Data Quality is a robust Data Governance program. Yet, Data Governance programs do not have a great track record either, Data Governance can be done better if you consider the following challenges:
1. It cannot be done manually. Data volume grows too fast.
2. Not all Data requires governance. Getting agreement on what is important is possible, but very difficult and always underestimated.
3. Do not start with compliance and privacy data. It is important to stay out of jail, of course, but it does not add any value to your business. Data Governance needs to have a positive impact on the bottom line as well – right away.
