Outsourcing your data quality problems??

A recent UK news story illustrates the dangers in outsourcing your data quality problems. UK Borders Agency awarded a £30m contract to Capita to track down 174,000 supposed illegal immigrants.

This quickly highlighted significant data quality problems with the wrong people being targeted – people who had left the UK years ago, people who held valid British passports etc. What added to the anguish suffered by people was the impersonal way that SMS text messages were used to inform them “Message from the UK Border Agency: You are required to leave the UK as you no longer have the right to remain.”

Decisions without information

 

When I saw a review of the book “Die Kunst des klugen Handelns” (The Art of Acting Cleverly) which started with the words:

“Try to get through life with a minimum of information. You will make better decisions. What you do not need to know remains worthless even if you are aware of it.”

That got me thinking! When running training sessions I sometimes pose the question “Is it better to make a decision without data or one with data of unknown quality?” to try and get people thinking about decision making and the role that data plays in it.

Zero data defects???

I think all people who are involved in data in any way would like to be in a position where they were no data defects and data could be relied upon 100%. Is this achievable?

I regularly use a comparison between approaches to health and safety/ work practices and the approaches to data. A recent achievement on a major project I am involved with provides another example of how we should perhaps be approaching data.

The permanence of data

A number of recent events have lead me to consider a little bit more about the permanence of data. Is data a permanent or a temporary thing?

Right good data or The right good data?

Most businesses are trying to ensure that they have good data, or as they might say in Yorkshire “Reet good data” (hence the flat cap image).

Before expending lots of time (and money) polishing and honing your data to perfection, have you assessed whether you are improving the right data?