The Importance of Data Quality

Visitor Records
As part of President Obama's commitment to government transparency, we
are providing records of White House visitors on an ongoing basis online. In
December 2009, we will begin posting all White House visitor records for the
period from September 15th onwards under the terms of our new voluntary
disclosure policy. In addition, as part of our new policy, we will post records
dating from January 20th that are specifically requested on an ongoing basis.
For more information, read the White House blog post announcing the new
policy.
Transparency like you’ve never seen before
Posted by Norm Eisen on October 30, 2009 at 04:31 PM EDT
Today marks a major milestone in government transparency--and an
important lesson in the unintended consequences of such vigorous
disclosure.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/disclosures/visitor-records

chillin in the white house
78 visitors records to the residence

cool things to do at the white house
• Congressional Luau
• Super Bowl Party
• St. Patrick’s Day Bash
• An Oval Office meeting about education

Over 50% of the White
House Visitor Data
Collection is Inconsistent.

good processes drive good data
• Only 305 records have the BDGE number field populated
• Middle Initial is only capture in 297 of the entries or 38%
of the visitors didn’t have middle names.
• Names vary based on the inclusion of ‘ or without
• <50% of the visits included a description

obvious thoughts
• 78 visitors to one’s house has got to suck
• A description of someone’s visit might be an important
mandatory field in the spirit of transparency and fun
– chillin w/ POTUS
– ready to limbo!
• How can 150 visits not have a badge number?
• Ever considered auditing your processes and systems?

considerations and observations
• Incomplete profile management indicates
inconsistent integration and/or data entry
• Data collections processes require management and
controls
• Inaccurate data mapping can impact data quality
• Every data field needs to have an owner
• Develop an administration wide set of data standards
to improve data quality