Improving Data Warehouse and Business Information Quality: Methods for Reducing Costs and Increasing Profits

CHAPTER 10

Information Quality Tools and Techniques

“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”

–ABRAHAM MASLOW

Information quality tools are tools that can be used effectively—or abused. Tools are not “solutions,” nor are they “silver bullets.” With a strong culture that values customer satisfaction in information products and a set of robust information quality processes, information quality tools can be effectively used to increase the efficiency of information quality assessment, control and cleansing, and improvement. Without an information quality culture, those same tools may not be maximized, or worse, they may be used as a means to absolve one's personal accountability for information quality.

In this chapter we identify the categories of information quality products, the problems each product category addresses, and a list of representative tools in each category. We describe some of the major functions the tools provide and highlight criteria for evaluating information quality products.

Finally, we classify categories of information quality improvement techniques and list the techniques cited in all of the information quality process steps. Due to space limitations they are not described here. Some are described in the process step but descriptions of the others may be found on the Internet at www.infoimpact.com under Information Quality Resources.

Tools for Information Quality Management

Information quality tools provide automation ...