Data quality and governance

Data quality

  • Data quality and governance

Definition

How accurate, complete, consistent and up to date data is, and therefore how far it can be trusted.

Example

A customer table with duplicate customers and missing country values can distort revenue analysis.

See how it works

Data issueDuplicate customer rows
Possible effectOvercounted customers

Assess completeness, consistency, validity, accuracy and timeliness against the intended use.

Check your understanding

Common mistake: Technically complete records may still be incorrect or unsuitable for a decision.

Can data have no missing values yet be poor quality?

Show explanation

Yes. Values may be wrong, inconsistent or out of date.

For your role

Choose your role to see what this term means in your work.

Why it matters

Decisions are only as good as the data behind them.

Where it is used

Report issues, data audits and system migrations.