
C H A P T E R I The Data Quality Problem
F I G U R E I . 2 Demands on operational databases.
Along with the increasing complexity of systems comes an increase in the
impact of inaccurate data. In the primary systems, a wrong value may have lit-
tle or no impact. It may cause a glitch in processing of an order, resultingin
some small annoyance to fix. However, as this wrong value is propagated to
higher-level decision support systems, it may trigger an incorrect reordering
of a product or give a decision maker the wrong information to base expand-
ing a manufacturing line on. The latter consequences ...