When I started focusing on data quality technology 15 years ago I had great expectations about the spread of data quality tools including the humble one I was fabricating myself.
Even if you tell me that tools haven’t spread because people are more important than technology, I think most people in the data and information quality realm think that the data and information quality cause haven’t spread as much as deserved.
Fortunately it seems that the interest in solving data quality issues is getting traction these days. I have noticed two main drivers for that. If we compare with the traditional means of getting a donkey to move forward, the one encouragement is like the carrot and the other encouragement is like the stick:
- The carrot is business intelligence
- The stick is compliance
With business intelligence there has been a lot things said and written about that business intelligence don’t deliver unless the intelligence is build on a solid valid data foundation. As a result I have noticed I’m being involved in data quality improvement initiatives around aimed as a foundation for delivering business decisions. One of my favorite data quality bloggers Jim Harris has turned that carrot a lot on his blog: Obsessive Compulsive Data Quality.
Another favorite data quality blogger Ken O’Conner has written about the stick being compliance work on his blog, where you will find a lot of good points that Ken has learned from his extensive involvement in regulatory requirement issues.
These times are interesting times with a lot of requirements for solving data quality issues. As we all know, the stereotype donkey is not easily driven forward and we must be aware not making the burden to heavy:
Liliendahl on Data Quality 