Getting Engaged in Information Quality Improvement
From the IAIDQ President
Christian Walenta
President
christian [dot] walenta [AT] iaidq [dot] org
April 2010: IDQ Newsletter Vol 6 Issue 2
IDQ Conference 2010
Learn from peers around the globe who have successfully overcome information and data quality challenges.
Join us at the 2010 Information and Data Quality Conference,
June 7-10, 2010.
The conference features several excellent case studies from practitioners, as well as tutorials from leading experts.
The 2010 IDQ conference is co-located with the Annual Data Governance Conference, so you can benefit even more from attending.
Visit idq-conference.com for details!
In conversations I often hear that “we have many Data Quality problems, but we don’t know where and how to start.” It seems we are often overwhelmed with day-to-day business issues, and while we know that “bad data” is at the heart of the issues, we lack a simple and sound methodology to get engaged and drive positive business change.
Here are a few thoughts, and links to IAIDQ resources online, that may give you just what you’re looking for.
1. Pick a pertinent business problem
Often there’s a particular business pain point that’s getting a lot of attention; this pain point may be the current focus because of a high-profile customer issue or complaint, a new strategic business initiative that’s about to be implemented, or a re-occurrence of an old issue that teams repeatedly encounter. Often, data issues are disguised as business problems, customer dissatisfiers or IT issues.
Latch on to an issue that has been raised high up with management, can deliver significant customer benefits, or is linked to a major new investment in the organization. Doing so will ensure you have a “meaty” opportunity to demonstrate value through information quality as well as increase the chances that others will join in and help work on issues.
2. Devise a simple and straight forward approach
Once you’ve identified the problem, make sure you can scope it from the “customer” perspective. The customer may be external to the organization, or they could be an internal “customer”, i.e. the teams in the organization that are affected.
Make an effort to “measure” how bad the problem truly is. This does not need to be sophisticated; a simple count of how often the issues appear, or a relative percentage is often sufficient. In fact, simpler measures are generally easier to understand and capture the attention of your stakeholders and management.
Now armed with current examples of issues, your next steps are simply to make sure that the specific occurrence of the problem gets fixed, to ensure that the business continues to run. This may entail making sure that an order can be placed, that a bill can be sent, or that teams have the correct information to do their jobs.
Resources Online
Information and Data Quality Conference
idq-conference.com
Fundamental Concepts
fundamentals.iaidq.org
Publications Portal publications.iaidq.org
IAIDQ LinkedIn Group
linkedin.iaidq.org
But don’t just stop there! Take the next step of finding out why this problem happened in the first place, and uncover the underlying root causes and contributors. Various techniques are available to drive this Root Cause analysis, but it is important to drill deep enough. My favorite way to get there is by asking the “Why Question” five times.
3. Be a change agent
Leverage your understanding of the root causes to work with the impacted teams on the improvement necessary to avoid any re-occurrences of the business issues. By introducing necessary improvements, you are working on what’s probably the most important aspect to sustain any Information Quality effort.
By this point, you’ll often find yourself changing business processes and policies, or IT systems and data flows. You’ll need to speak the relevant business or IT lingo and influence others to make the appropriate changes. If you have defined a “customer relevant” metric at the beginning, such a metric will now help you get the other parts of the organization on board.
Being a change agent in the business elevates your Information Quality practices and processes, because now you are not just talking as the “data geek” about the wrong data elements in the database; instead, you are “talking business” and the impact and value of your efforts are easier to recognize for what they are – a continuous improvement of the business.
4. Make it your Job!
It’s crucial to communicate and celebrate initial successes to build on the foundation achieved and gain more momentum to tackle the next and bigger information quality agenda. You have to be willing to take on business problems that your management or others are throwing at you. On the surface these problems may sometimes not seem to be “data quality” issues; just remember that inside most problems you can find the hidden data quality dimension.
And if there is none, don’t worry – obviously people now recognize that you have a capability to address and fix issues and drive improvements. At the end of the day, look at the value you provide to the organization and customers. Strike the phrase “this is not my job” from your vocabulary and become the recognized business leader your organization needs.
About the Author
Christian Walenta is a recognized leader in Information Management and currently manages a Product Announcement Information Chain at IBM. He developed and implemented Information Quality programs for IBM's Supply Chain and has extensive practical experience in all aspects of Information Management, including setting overall IM strategies, implementing data stewardship and governance programs for complex organizations and driving Information Management as continuous culture change. He was recognized 2006 for his achievements in Information Management with an Outstanding Innovation Award from IBM.