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When data quality is the topic of conversation, too often managers and execs are quick to sweep the discussion aside, or worse, sweep it under the rug. In my experience, data quality projects often have to demonstrate their resolve and overall worth early to establish their right to be implemented along with the multitude of other large projects that traditionally gobble up a company’s IT budget. The usual suspects include data warehouse initiatives, enterprise resource planning and operational data store implementations and any number of industry-specific or operational systems, such as a policy administration or sales automation systems. While these usual suspects consume the bulk of the attention and budget from IT leadership, another smaller project has the potential to provide an array of benefits and payback for countless organizations: a data quality dashboard solution.

It is not always easy to articulate the key reasons why a data quality dashboard and reporting solution will provide true ROI. Numerous reasons can initially be cited:

• To ensure compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulatory requirements.
• To proactively increase awareness of the quality of an organization’s data assets.
• To bolster confidence on the business side in the quality of the data upon which they rely for reporting and decision-making.
• To enable end users by providing them with tools that will help them be more efficient and productive in their day-to-day job, with fewer headaches along the way.
• To measure, trend and track data quality improvements over time, ensuring that investments in process improvements and technology infrastructure are protected.
• To audit, gauge and track the efficiency of systems integration exception handling and/or data stewardship processes.

If these reasons were presented to a seminar of consultants and mildly intrigued company managers, they would certainly make the ROI case for a data quality dashboard initiative. However, when an organization is truly considering putting pen to paper and allocating serious dollars to any prospective project, they need to understand how this will provide real value to their company; not just idealistic examples about future perceived, unrealized returns. They need to see hard ROI.

Then how can the justifications be articulated in a way that will not only inspire and invoke action and secure the funding that will ensure maximum benefit for an organization? To best justify a data quality initiative, it is necessary to fully understand the individual organization’s needs, both in the near- and long-term.

Crash Course

It is helpful to clearly define a data quality dashboard and what it can provide to a business. First, let’s break down the components of a generic dashboard report.

"Dashboards provide visibility into key performance indicators through simple visual graphics such as gauges, charts and tables within a Web browser. Dashboards are appealing because they:

• Present a wide number of different metrics in a single consolidated view.
• Roll up details into high-level summaries.
• Provide intuitive indicators, such as gauges and stoplights, that are instantly understandable - for example, red bar means problem, green bar means everything is on plan.
• Display an at-a-glance view of the current operational state of the project."

Now we need to modify this definition to be specific to a data quality dashboard:

"A data quality dashboard is a visually intensive report that is created through collaboration between business and IT to define, measure and trend the consistency and quality of their data over time measured against business-defined KPIs. It presents numerous metrics and rollup details in a single consolidated view, utilizing intuitive indicators such as gauges, stoplights and charts to provide an operational snapshot of the current state of the organization."

Now that definitions are cleared up, the next hurdle is to ensure that the data quality dashboard is adequately rationalized, ensuring maximum ROI for the individual organization.

Situation Assessment: Who Needs a Data Quality Dashboard Solution?

In today’s regulation-driven world, most companies are under a great deal of pressure to provide comprehensive oversight and management of their data assets. This pressure can mount from multiple angles, such as from industry or governmental regulatory bodies as well as internal leadership. Accountability is the resounding theme, but how can a data quality dashboard help?

We have to first understand the individual organization.

• Where is the company on the maturity roadmap?
• Do they already have a reliable data warehouse, and if so, do they fully utilize its capabilities for business intelligence, data mining and reporting?
• What other flagship IT programs are currently “in-flight” or have been successfully implemented in the past five years? Better still, what IT initiatives begun within the last five years have stalled or failed?
• What reporting pain points does the business currently experience on a daily, weekly or monthly basis across the various business functions (such as finance, sales, marketing, support and services)?

These questions are geared at understanding the current maturity of the organization, the current IT landscape and the base reporting infrastructure in place. Once these current-state analysis questions (among others) are answered, the picture comes a bit more into focus, and we can begin to understand where a customized data quality dashboard can provide maximum value.

Any organization undertaking one of the large, usual suspects projects previously mentioned is a prime candidate for data quality standardization, cleansing/scrubbing and governance. In 2008, Gartner Inc. published “Nine Fatal Flaws in BI Implementations.” Flaw number three specifically addresses data quality issues: