The document provides 12 guidelines for ensuring success in data quality projects, based on case studies and research. The guidelines include: documenting costs of poor data quality; prioritizing a small, high-value problem; setting measurable objectives; aligning business and IT; ensuring management support; identifying data uses and flows; educating employees; designating data stewards; using proven methods; selecting proven tools; using a phased rollout; and tracking return on investment. Following these guidelines can help organizations effectively implement data quality initiatives.

1. 12 Guidelines for Success
in Data Quality Projects

2. Introduction
The need for accuracy, completeness, and quality of data generated and used in companies and organizations
is not a new concept. The “father of computing”, Charles Babbage, asked over 150 years ago how “the
right answers” could come out of his computing machine if the “wrong figures” were put in. The concept
of “Garbage In, Garbage Out” was created by the earliest programmers in the 1950’s and subsequently
taught to generations of IT professionals.
This paper discusses key characteristics of data quality initiatives and provides actionable guidelines to
help make your project a success, from conception through implementation and tracking your ROI.
2 12 GUIDELINES FOR SUCCESS IN DATA QUALITY PROJECTS

3. The solution to the data quality problems that permeate companies and other organizations is for them to
undertake data quality programs. The objective is to profile, standardize, cleanse, and integrate data across
the enterprise in order to create consistent, accurate, reliable information for decision-making, reporting, and
day-to-day operations, and to put standards, policies, education, and processes in place to ensure that data
remains “clean” and accurate on an ongoing basis.
One of the simplest – and still current -- definitions of data quality is from Martin J. Eppler, in his book, Managing
Information Quality: Increasing the Value of Information in Knowledge-Intensive Products and Processes, where
he defines “information quality” as:
Data quality problems
require data quality solutions
[T]he fitness for use of information; information that meets the
requirements of its authors, users, and administrators.1
Therefore, the challenge for any data quality initiative must be to ensure that data standards, quality, and
usage meet the requirements of all “authors, users, and administrators”. Further, this means identifying all of
the “authors, users, and administrators” and the business processes in which they use data.
Typical areas to address in deciding where to start data quality initiatives include:
• Business intelligence (BI) systems, data warehouses, analytics
• Customer-facing systems
• Financial reports for compliance or audit
• Transaction processing systems
• Analysis of purchasing and supplier spending
3 12 GUIDELINES FOR SUCCESS IN DATA QUALITY PROJECTS

4. Ultimately, data quality initiatives must address three overarching principles:
Undertaking a data quality project or series of projects requires making a case to those who will approve funding
that such an effort will have a positive return on investment for the company. A critical step in beginning a data
quality effort is to translate the technical symptoms and problems into business problems, symptoms, and
financial impacts. This requires that any data quality project be envisioned and managed as a joint business/
IT project, with in-depth engagement of the business leaders.
Finally, the implementation, administration, and ongoing use of software tools for data cleansing, de-duplication,
and data management will require large-scale IT project investment and project management. However, the
key to data quality project success is to keep the IT and technology parts of the project secondary to the
business and process focus part.
1. Completeness of data
2. Accuracy of data
3. Uniqueness of data2
Any data quality project should
be envisioned and managed as
a joint business/IT project.
4 12 GUIDELINES FOR SUCCESS IN DATA QUALITY PROJECTS

5. The following points are distilled from hundreds of case histories, representing data quality projects large and
small, and both successful and unsuccessful. The list is not intended to be exhaustive but rather to provide a
starting point for organizations to begin their data quality improvement programs.
Guidelines for implementing
data quality programs
1. Document and communicate the costs and missed
opportunities created by poor data quality
Look at both cost and missed revenue opportunities. Work with business representatives and analysts from
the finance department to assign values that will stand up to scrutiny. Each functional benefit, e.g., “accurate
invoices”, claimed for the project should have a metric and a dollar value conversion. For example, if the data
quality project aims to improve the accuracy of customer invoices, the metric is “% accurate” and the dollar
value (or financial benefit) would come from the statement, “Each inaccurate invoice costs $250 in labor plus
$500 in lost customer goodwill”. In this example, if the company generates 10,000 invoices per year, and the
baseline metric is 85% accuracy, then an improvement to invoice accuracy to 95% would be worth $750,000
per year (10,000 invoices X 10% improvement X $750 value of each newly accurate invoice = $750,000.)
2. Prioritize by attacking a small subset
of the data quality problem first
Create a decision-making quadrant to aid
in selecting the best project to start first.3
Then focus on creating a series of small wins
and proving the value of data quality one
project at a time. Evaluate potential projects
against value and difficulty by creating a
scoring method and placing projects on the
matrix according to score. Then start with the
project that pays off the most for the least
effort, demonstrate ROI from that project,
and leverage success to move on to the next
project.
Start here
Irrelevant
No funding
Wait and see
Low Hanging
Fruit
High value
Hard to do
Low value
Easy to do
5 12 GUIDELINES FOR SUCCESS IN DATA QUALITY PROJECTS

6. A data project plan must show
how all team members will work
toward a common goal.
3. Set attainable and measurable business objectives
Translate potential improvements in data quality into impacts on business outcomes or benefits. Projects will
be approved and funded based on executives’ confidence that the efforts will (1) be completed successfully,
(2) be completed in a reasonable period of time, and (3) deliver positive financial benefits in support of overall
corporate or organizational goals.
4. Align business and IT objectives, expectations, and organizations
Funding is rarely granted for nebulous “data processing” or IT projects with no clear impact on business
objectives. The business case and project plan must show how all team members – IT, business, finance,
operations – will be organized to work together toward shared, measureable, clear objectives, and a common
set of expectations of what success looks like.
6 12 GUIDELINES FOR SUCCESS IN DATA QUALITY PROJECTS

7. 5. Confirm senior management engagement and participation
Data quality is an issue that involves the entire organization. As such, all project plans and regular reporting
must involve senior management long after the investments are approved and the “all systems go” is given. Plan
for project team members from all functions to provide regular reporting back to their functional leadership.
In addition, the project manager should be providing both scheduled updates and ad hoc reports to both his
own management and to all of the organization’s senior business leaders. It is important to show progress
by celebrating the small wins for each milestone along the way. This helps to ensure continued support and
engagement from all stakeholders.
6. Identify business processes, supporting data, and data interdependencies
An important early step in the process is to do a complete top-to-bottom assessment of the business, its
business processes, and operations. What data is captured, stored, passed between organizations? Where are
the data sources and where are the end points? This assessment will take around a month to complete but
will pay off in the end by saving you a significant amount of re-work down the road. The “we will figure it out
as we go” approach will not serve you as well.
Using structured methodologies to identify business processes, workflow, and how data flows throughout an
organization is highly recommended. Many companies choose to utilize the services of an outside firm for
“scanning”, uncovering, and documenting the organization’s processes and data flows.
7. Educate and evangelize
As mentioned earlier, data quality problems affect the entire business. Therefore, it is imperative that all
employees who use data, do data entry, or rely on data for their jobs are aware of whatever data quality efforts
are planned or taking place, and of their responsibilities in maintaining high-quality data. Many organizations
conduct “lunch-and-learns” or “brown bag sessions” to communicate data quality initiatives and details to all
employees. Most companies utilize intranets, internal social media, and wikis to allow employees to contribute
and stay up to date on progress.
7 12 GUIDELINES FOR SUCCESS IN DATA QUALITY PROJECTS

8. 8. Commit trained personnel to data quality throughout the organization
In addition to the general employee population, there needs to be a group of people who are highly trained
in data quality and data governance to help keep data and metadata accurate. Most companies that have
undertaken data initiatives – data quality, data governance, master data management – have created the role
of “data steward” and “data custodian” and propagated these individuals throughout the business.
9. Employ a proven methodology
Whether conducting projects in-house or contracting outside consultants or service providers to assist, it is
critical to use proven methodologies to attack data quality projects. Ad hoc project management and software
implementation methods slow down project completion or cause project failure.
10. Source proven software and tools
The growing need for data quality and data governance has spawned an ever-growing number of suppliers
eager to get into the business of improving data quality. While this is terrific for competition, it does not
necessarily bode well for organizations trying to effect data quality. Data quality is an enterprise-wide business
and technology issue that demands the same level of evaluation and analysis of vendors and products as any
other technology with an enterprise-wide scale and scope. The impact of failure and the risk of project delays
or shortfalls is simply too great to allow for unproven products with little or no track record. Project leaders
should require multiple references from potential vendors and inquire about the time, cost, and resources
needed to implement the solutions – as well as the business results that were achieved.
Proven methodologies are
key to the success of any
data quality project.
8 12 GUIDELINES FOR SUCCESS IN DATA QUALITY PROJECTS

9. 12. Track return on investment
Data quality projects are approved and funded based on the project leader’s proposed benefits, in the form
of Return On Investment (ROI), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), and Net Present Value (NPV). As each data quality
project is completed, the project team must continue to monitor it against the goals that were set in the plan.
Each functional item, benefit, cost saving, expense reduction, and any other claim made to justify the project
should be measured against the metrics created for it. Since all functional metrics, e.g., accurate invoices,
etc., had dollar value estimates jointly created between project team, business representatives, and finance
representatives at the outset (see example for invoice accuracy, in “Document and communicate the costs
and missed opportunities created by poor data quality”), ROI and other success measures may be determined
by measuring the preordained functional metrics and applying the financial factors.
The key is to set up regular reviews (monthly to start, then quarterly) of the key metrics, convert them to dollar
values, and report the ROI results to senior management. In this manner, projects with positive ROI will become
the stepping stones to further data quality projects yielding even greater returns.
11. Use a phased roll-out schedule
Like any enterprise-wide project, a data quality improvement project will encounter obstacles and unexpected
problems along the way. In addition to selecting the best data quality projects at the start, the project manager
should also create a project plan with multiple phases and “stage-gates” between start and finish. Each “stage”
of the project should be reviewed upon completion and subject to a go/no-go approval “gate” based on
both objective and subjective criteria. The stages or phases of the rollout create the milestones for all senior
management to be briefed – or better yet, to take active roles in the stage-gate reviews and approvals.
9 12 GUIDELINES FOR SUCCESS IN DATA QUALITY PROJECTS

10. Data quality is a business imperative that requires solid assessment, planning, and execution. With computer-
generated data permeating every area of almost every business, the need for accurate, clean data is self-evident.
Yet research shows that almost every company suffers from some magnitude of data quality problems. Estimates
of 25% to 30% of all corporate data being inaccurate are in the press and research reports. Incredible annual
cost numbers like $600 billion in wasted costs and 40% of all corporate IT have been published to describe
the size of the problem.
Methods, software, and tools have emerged to assist in the effort to create and maintain data quality in companies
of all sizes. New initiatives in customer data integration, master data management, and data governance bring
data quality to the forefront of IT discussions and to the boardrooms of organizations worldwide.
From years of data quality programs, hundreds of case studies, and research by industry experts, a number of
common success factors have emerged.
Summary
10 12 GUIDELINES FOR SUCCESS IN DATA QUALITY PROJECTS

11. 12 guidelines for success:
1. Document and communicate the costs and missed opportunities created by poor data quality
2. Prioritize by attacking a small subset of the data quality problem first and focus on a series of
small wins
3. Set attainable and measurable business objectives
4. Align business and IT objectives, expectations, and organizations
5. Confirm senior management engagement and participation
6. Identify business processes, supporting data, and data interdependencies
7. Educate and evangelize
8. Commit trained personnel to data quality throughout the organization
9. Employ a proven methodology
10. Source proven software and tools
11. Use a phased roll-out schedule
12. Track ROI
Sources
1. Martin J. Eppler, Managing Information Quality: Increasing the Value of Information in Knowledge-intensive Products and Processes, 2003, p.294.
2. David Loshin, Data Quality and Cost Reduction, 2010.
3. Adapted from Steve Sarsfield, The Data Governance and Data Quality Insider blog, located at http://data-governance.blogspot.com/2009/07/data-quality-project-
selection.html
11 12 GUIDELINES FOR SUCCESS IN DATA QUALITY PROJECTS

12. ​Innovative Systems has been providing software and consulting services to major companies in more
than 40 countries for over 45 years. We deliver both on-premises and cloud-based (SaaS) multi-domain
enterprise data management solutions that can be deployed for operational or decision support
requirements.
World Headquarters
790 Holiday Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15220-8127 US
Phone: 800.622.6390
International Call: +1.412.937.9300
E-mail: info@innovativesystems.com
About Innovative Systems, Inc.
www.innovativesystems.com
TORONTO | MEXICO CITY | FRANKFURT | BOGOTÁ | CAYMAN ISLANDS | AMSTERDAM | SINGAPORE
EMEA / APAC Headquarters
Level 21b, Tower 42
25 Old Broad Street
London, EC2N 1HQ UK
Phone: +44 (0) 20 7422 6310
E-mail: info@innovativesystems.com