Liliendahl on Data Quality

Yesterday I followed a webinar on DataQualityPro with ECCMA ISO 8000 project leader Peter Benson.

Peter had a lot of good sayings and fortunately Jim Harris as a result of his live tweeting has documented a sample of good quotes here.

My favorite:

“Quality data does NOT guarantee quality information, but quality information is impossible without quality data.”

I have personally conducted an experiment that supports that hypothesis. It goes as this:

First, I found a data file on my computer. Lots of data in there being numbers and letters. And sure, what is interesting is the information I can derive for different purposes.

Then I deleted the data file and tried to see how much information was left behind.

Guess what? Not a bit.

I first published that experiment as a comment to one of Jim’s blog posts: Data Quality and the Cupertino Effect.

As documented in the comments on this blog post the subject of data (quality) versus information (quality) is ever recurring and almost always guarantees a fierce discussion among data/information management professionals.

So, I’ll just tell you this secret: My work in achieving quality information is done by fixing data quality.

And guess what? I have disabled comments on this blog post.