
32 Part I Information Crisis to Business Excellence
The cultural change will not come easily, for Knowledge Workers do not
necessarily want to give up their private, proprietary Information Stores, and
managers do not want to give up their ability to work toward their own objec-
tives. For a comprehensive treatment of the 14 Points of Transformation for
Information Quality, see Chapter 11, “The 14 Points of Information Quality” in
Improving Data Warehouse and Business Information Quality.
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What Is Information Quality?
Information Quality is both a concept and a function.
INFORMATION QUALITY CONCEPT DEFINED
Information Quality is “‘Consistently meeting or exceeding all Knowledge
Workers and end-Customer expectations’ with information, so that Knowledge
Workers can perform their work effectively and contribute to the enterprise
mission, and so that Customers are successful in conducting business with
you and are delighted with the products, services and communications [infor-
mation] they receive.”
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Information Quality is not an end in and of itself. It exists as a business tool to
enable the accomplishment of the Mission of the Enterprise, whether business,
government, not-for-profit, or in our own personal lives.
It is always the Customer who decides whether a product, service, or infor-
mation meets their needs. Armand Feigenbaum states it pointedly, “Quality
is what the Customer says ...