The degree to which managing data quality matters to the success of business simply cannot be overstated. Now that businesses are firmly in the information age, the damage that can be done if your company uses inaccurate data can be truly devastating.
Proper data quality management is something every business operating in this day and age must heavily invest in.
At this point, your business should already have a data management infrastructure in place. Still, that may not be enough. You should always look for ways to improve upon that infrastructure and further refine the way your business handles data.
The tips included below should help your business and many others improve the way they approach data quality management.
Clearly Define the Roles for Everyone in the Organization
When confusion reigns, mistakes are made, and those mistakes often lead to errors showing up in the database. The thing about data management is that it’s easy to get it wrong when the people in the organization aren’t on the same page.
There may be times when people who are supposed to perform specific tasks will be asked to overextend and take on other jobs. That would be a non-issue if workloads are relatively light, but in data management, there are always numerous tasks that have to be completed.
With all that said, you must define the roles for everyone to prevent confusion and give all the people involved a clear idea of what they must do.
Examples of roles that may exist in a data quality managerial organization include data stewards, data analysts, organization change agents, and project managers, according to Techopedia. Identify the people who will fill those specific roles so that everyone can work in unison and maintain a high-quality database.
Get All the Departments Involved
In some cases, bigger companies tend to have very segmented departments. What’s going on in the manufacturing department may not be something that those in other departments are aware of.
Giving the individual departments some leeway to focus on themselves first is not a bad idea, but they should still be working in conjunction with one another at all times as far as data management is concerned.
The heads of all departments should have a vested interest in any errors made, regardless of which department is involved. That way, all the departments can avoid making those errors later on.
All of the departments should also participate heavily in routine data management so that no one in the company is left unaware of how things are done.
Use a Primary Key
As pointed out by this article from Study.com, a primary key can make data management significantly easier. It does that by cutting down on the number of times that certain entries have to be updated.
With a primary key in use, updating one entry can lead to another database entry being changed. That will only happen if certain conditions are met though.
Using a primary key will effectively reduce the number of times that individual entries have to be updated, and as a result, fewer errors will also be made.
Keep Track of Data Issues Encountered
Mistakes are inevitable when you’re working with a mountain of data. The same mistakes being made over and over again is not acceptable, however.
If a mistake is made, it should be tracked and entered into a log for future reference. Later on, the mistake in question should be reviewed thoroughly so that it does not end up being committed again.
Learning from your mistakes may be a cliché, but it is still absolutely essential to properly maintaining data quality.
Managing data quality is a never-ending job. There will always be new entries to process and mistakes to be avoided.
To make the task of managing data quality easier, take note of the tips above and see how they work for your business.
More on this topic: Your Guide to Understanding Master Data Management Tools