Chapter List

Part Overview

This section consists of three chapters designed to help leaders build a business case for data quality. While poor data quality and its impact makes the national and business news from time to time (Chapter 7 ), most data quality issues are buried deep within the organization (Chapter 8 ). They sap an organization's strength. They make it more difficult to satisfy customers, cost time and money, and compromise decision making. They make it more difficult to do the things the organization wants to do.

All of these points were made, by example, in Chapters 1 6. Chapters 7 and 8 summarize them in a way that makes building the business case easier. They comprise a"laundry list" of the issues.

The best way to get others in the organization interested is to call out the impact of poor data on the organization's most important strategies (Chapter 9 ).

Overview

Though national newspapers do not have sections entitled "Those Who Fail to Deliver Good Data," bad data and their impact make the national news regularly. The most infamous recent case was the bombing of the Chinese Embassy during the Kosovo war. The error made headlines for days and was still newsworthy months later when Secretary Cohen visited China to apologize on behalf of the United States. Follow-up commentary examined the incident from...