| | SEPTEMBER 20229CIOReview· Assess Data Quality to determine whether data meets requirements. Assessment can take place as part of data analysis for project work, data quality improvement projects, data quality monitoring, or through data use. Monitoring is not an end-in-itself. Its main goal is to help data consumers by creating a feedback loop to data producers. · Take Action so that data does meet expectations. Data assessment may clarify data quality requirements or identify new requirements. o For data that is critical to the organization's goals, taking action entails determining the root causes of problems, remediating costly issues, and using insight about root causes to improve business and technical processes,reduce risks, and remove the obstacles to data use.Ideally, it includes implementing controls to prevent future issues. o For data that is not critical to the organization's goals, taking action may mean deciding not to take action, and instead choosing to live with identified issues and their associated risks ­ but doing so intentionally, not accidentally. In my role at Prudential Financial, Inc. ("PFI"), a US-based global financial services and asset manager, I find these questions help me partner effectively with our business to become a more data driven company.Asking these questions and helping the organization answer them is necessary to identify improvement opportunities. As importantly, the activities necessary to answer the three questions (setting standards, assessing data, and taking action) will build out explicit knowledge about the organization's data. Perhaps the biggest benefit is increased awareness of the ways data binds the organization together. This awareness will help people in different parts of the organization work together more productively. Done well, data quality management provides a means of developing organizational self-knowledge through data knowledge. Prudential Financial Inc. of the United States is not affiliated with Prudential PLC, headquartered in the United Kingdom, or with Prudential Assurance Company, a subsidiary of M&G PLC, also headquartered in the United Kingdom. Most organizations lack the understanding of their own data, which is a terrible waste of resources. Data quality management helps improve and sustain the data quality that an organization needs to deliver on its mission and serve its customersFigure: Three questions at the core of data quality management (From Laura Sebastian-Coleman, Meeting the Challenges of Data Quality Management, Elsevier 2022)
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