
Chapter 5 Assessing Information Quality 197
in development, no Product price is required. However, once the product is offi-
cially available for sale, there must be a valid product price amount.
Measurement test: Electronic. Completeness is best measured by elec-
tronic means. Create assessment queries that test the required attributes for
record creation, using an internal query language or by developing tests,
sometimes called filters, in IQ Assessment software. Given the nature of
the actual data value, it may be a “null,” or may be represented by a blank
or a zero or other “missing” indicator. These tests should also include
state change values, applying a business rule test, to test if an entity is in
a given state where one or more attribute values are required.
tip Separate tests for mandatory completeness and optional completeness,
for the impact on the enterprise processes are different. If having a value is
truly optional, it is not an error to have a missing value unless the Attribute
can add valuable Knowledge to certain processes.
Note Missing values in required Attributes cause operational processes to
fail, but missing values in Strategic Attributes can cause missed opportunity.
Validity Tests
There are three types of validity to test:
Value Validity:
A value for an Attribute is one of the valid values (if a
code) or within a range of values for quantitative ...