Data Contracts

Chapter 2. Data Quality Isn’t About Pristine Data

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One of the early mistakes Mark made in his data career was trying to internally sell data quality on the merits of what pristine data could provide the organization. The harsh reality is that, beyond data practitioners, very few people in the business care about data– they instead care what they can do with data. Coupled with data being an abstract concept (especially among non-technical stakeholders), screaming into the corporate void about data quality won’t get one far as it’s challenging to connect it to business value, and thus data quality is relegated to being a “nice-to-have” investment. This dynamic changed dramatically for Mark when he stopped trying to internally sell pristine data and instead focused on the risk to important business workflows (e.g. often revenue driving) due to poor data quality. In this chapter, we expand on this lesson by defining data quality, highlight ...