KQIs (Key Quality Indicators) To Measure Data Quality

At the recent MIT Information Quality Industry Symposium, the hot topic was measuring the impact of data quality programs. In a bad economy, it makes perfect sense. If your company is cutting programs, you need to justify your data quality initiatives, or they too will be cut. My favorite presentation on the topic was from Delphine Clement, whose topic was the, “Cost of Non Quality Data.” I thought that was an interesting way to look at it, and she presented a very mature view of Data Management. Delphine credited sessions from previous MIT Information Quality Symposiums with some of the underlying theory. I’m sure there are others to credit as well, and if you know the history please comment.

Delphine reports on the Key Quality Indicators (KQIs) that matter the most to her business partners. She has taught the business community that KQIs are needed to build confidence in the KPIs. I like that the KQI approach mirrors the KPIs (in naming and level of importance), and that they are presented as a complementary report. Think of this as the metadata for the KPIs. That’s the way I rationalized it.

KQIs would make sense to any Data Quality lead, but it might not to a VP of Marketing or VP of Sales. It’s not their job to care how we do ours. So how do you bridge the gap with the executive KPI users? You must understand their needs, and show them that the KQIs are driving the data quality projects in your organization. They will only care if the KQIs help to resolve their issues. Also, KQIs may be used to show them progress in your data quality programs. When you complete a project and are able to turn a yellow (cautionary) indicator to green (good), they will understand how the project affected their work.

Delphine’s approach begins by asking business leads and other data users a simple question, “How should we measure data quality.” She gathers feedback via surveys from her business customers and measures progress through response trending over time. Sounds like internal Marketing, right? Delphine also presented a methodology for measuring direct vs. indirect cost savings from Data Quality initiatives. She has clearly spent a lot of time working on this approach and is doing a great job. I really enjoyed this presentation.

She also recommended involving the end users early on to define:

• What are the Key Quality Indicators (KQIs) that are important to the business?
• Should the KQIs be global or local?
• What is the cost of poor quality data?
• Are the KQI’s different by country?

I love these questions. Simple, direct, and open. Rather than telling our peers how we should be measured, ask them and include them in the KQI process.

Patriot Place Foxboro Restaurant Reviews

As a resident of a nearby town, I couldn’t help but get excited when I saw the plan for Patriot Place in Foxboro. From the start it seemed focused on restaurants and entertainment venues. I’ve now been to most of them, and thought I’d put my opinions out there. I’ve left places at the bottom for future restaurants reviews.

Davios

One of the better meals I’ve had outside of a major city. Davios is known for their mix of Steak and Italian food. It’s a nice combination that lots of restaurants attempt, and fail miserably. Davios on the other hand does a great job at both, and makes the menu fun with appetizers like the Philly Cheese Steak Spring Rolls, a decadent choice that tastes great. The hand-rolled gnocchi was also great, but be sure to save space for an aged ribeye or sirloin! That’s why you spend the money to go to Davios.

Skipjacks

Every time I go to a Skipjacks (other regular location for me is in Newton, and in Brookline Village before it closed) I think, why do people go to Legal Seafood? The fish is of better quality at Skipjacks, and the chefs keep it simple so the natural flavor of the fish comes through. My one complaint about this location is that we ate there on a cold Winter night, and the whole restaurant was freezing. My wife wore her coat the entire time. Hopefully, by their second winter season, they’ll figure out that they need one of those canvas entry ways out front to shield the wind from entering.

Red Robin

It’s exactly as advertised. Big, lively, fun. The experience was fine, but I hate it when restaurants feel the need to hide mayonaise on the bottom bun to make the burger taste more juicy. It’s cheating. And disgusting. And they never say it on the menu for fear of offending health concious diners. You know how not to offend us? Don’t put that crap on the burger unless I ask for it! I’m willing to eat unhealthy food (see Philly Cheese Steak note in Davios review), but I want to know it before the first bite. Red Robin is always packed with families and teenages who love the environment. I think I’ll leave this place for them. I must also mention on a positive note that they get a huge thumbs up for customer service. While waiting outside for our table, the host staff passed out free baskets of french fries. Very smart.

Tavolino

I love their sister restaurant, Siena in Mashpee Commons on the The Cape. [look for Cape Cod Restaurant Reviews soon] I really wanted Tavolino to be better than it was, but they butchered our first experience there. They sat us in the bar area when the whole restaurant was empty. When we asked to move they let us know that all of the tables were reserved. The restaurant was brand new and was still empty when we left. It made us feel very small. We also had to leave before our entrees were delivered. We ordered and ate a tasty, crunchy flatbread pizza as an appetizer. After 20 minutes of waiting for our dinners to arrive we asked the waitress and she let us know that they’d be right out. 10 minutes later… nothing. So we asked again, and then watched two waitresses trying to figure out why our meals hadn’t come, and then finally enter our order into the computer. One of them then came back and blamed the kitchen. I called BS, told them to keep the dinners and left without tipping.

N.B. We’ve been back since and had a wonderful experience the night of the Elton John / Billy Joel concert in July. They have figured out some of their new restaurant issues, and our waitress was very good. I should also note that the Prosciutto Fig pizza was excellent, and we will surely order it every time we go.

CBS Scene

If you’re a guy, you have to go. The food is too fancy to be called bar food, and priced accordingly. It’s not great, but that’s not why you go to CBS Scene. It starts with the idea of an ESPN Zone, but goes so much further. The perfect location allows you to see into the stadium, which alone is quite cool. But inside if there’s a game on TV you won’t miss it regardless of where you’re sitting. Each table has a personal audio / video jukebox with some live TV and some old CBS shows. There’s also a multi-level spiral staircase with games projected on metal mesh walls as you walk down to your table. It’s just a cool place to see.

Bar Louie

I like Bar Louie for the drinks and not the food. It’s great to have a huge, well designed bar in the suburbs. I find myself staring at the menu and wishing I had eaten before I came out. That’s not a good sign. I don’t want to be too down on this place, since it’s a great bar scene. It gets packed Thurs - Sat, which is a good thing for those looking for a scene.

BR Cafe (Baskin Robbins)

A concept store from the Dunkin Folks. The ice cream is fine and they sell some fancy, overpriced cakes. But it’s a fun place for the kids. They also have a topping bar that makes this my wife’s favorite place to get ice cream. We can’t go to Patriot Place without stopping here.

5 Guys Burgers and Fries

Why did it take so long for this to make it to New England? They sell two things. Burgers and Fries. I love that! What more do you need? They give out peanuts and fry in peanut oil as mentioned on exactly 857 signs. Peanut allergy fears? You bet. The burgers are tasty, juicy masterpieces and come with any toppings you want for free. The fries could be the best I’ve ever had (and as shown above, I’m a critic). They are fresh cut daily from bags of idahos and the town they were grown in is displayed proudly on the wall next to the counter. This is what I picture burgers to have been like when people ate at drive throughs. The red and white diner tiles only emphasize the classic cuisine.

Studio 3 / Showcase Cinema De Lux

This could be the true gem of Patriot Place. Not because of the food, which is fine, but because this is the most intelligently designed VIP cinema experience I’ve been to. The huge leather seats are comfortable and allow you to eat and drink without having to do contortions. The VIP seats are accessed from the second floor of the theatre, and stretch across multiple theatres. Great idea. The food is fine allowing you to combine your dinner and movie experiences.

Q’doba, BlueFin, and Olive Garden

These restaurants are not why I go to Patriot Place. I worked at Olive Garden as a teenager, and will likely never eat there again. No specific reason related to food quality, cleanliness, etc. Just a lack of interest eating somewhere I worked.

Tastings

coming soon…

Data Governance During Organizational Change

This is a continuation of the Lightweight Data Governance series, but very much applies to formal data governance as well. I even find myself using formal terms like Data Steward and Executive Sponsor below, so it definitely applies to both.

One of the most frustrating areas of Data Governance is organizational change. Companies change because of growth, change because of decline, change because of new opportunities, but the result is that executives turn over rapidly. At times of transition, you must be proactive and communicate the value that Data Governance brings to your organization.

Business Turnover - Data Stewards

You’ve spent the last year or two collecting data stewards who know the business, and aren’t afraid to tackle the difficult data and process issues at the company. Then one of your favorites leaves. Has anyone else noticed the “Going POCO” trend? Pursuing Other Career Opportunities? In some cases, we never know if the resource was fired or quit. I guess it shouldn’t matter, but I know I’m always curious.

This case will show how well you’ve built relationships at your company. Do you already know other colleagues in the department you can invite into the Data Governance role? Have you educated the executives so they understand that Data Governance was an key element of the departing employee’s responsibilities? If not, it’s time to get cracking.

Technology Turnover - Systems Owners

This one has given me the most headaches. You’ve finally got your projects on the technology team’s roadmap and have communicated it to all the right people. And then they leave the company. The difference here is that you’re not just talking about one individual, but a commitment to spend valuable time and resources on your projects.

This situation requires you to communicate with the new owner, and introduce the value of the work. As in the example above, it would also help if you’d built relationships with others in the technology group. You may even luck out, and already know the new owner! That’s obviously the best case scenario. If not, reach out and introduce yourself and your work. Keep in mind that Data Governance work provides value to the system owners since it increases the end user perception of how well they are doing their job.

High Level Executive Turnover - Executive Sponsors

When someone in your departement’s leadership team moves on, or if one of your data steward’s executives leaves the company, you will need to begin building a new relationship. Communication to the exective level is all about value and solving business problems. Don’t get bogged down in the details. Most executives don’t care how you will solve their problem, just that you understand it and have a way to fix it. If you find yourself showing architecture diagrams and explaining Master Data Management (MDM) theory, start over. You’re at the wrong level of detail. Instead, show them the money! How will you reduce cost, drive revenue, or fix a compliance issue? Answer those questions, and new executive sponsorship shouldn’t be an issue.

MIT Information Quality Symposium Day 2

With Day 2 of the MIT IQIS complete, I thought it would be good to write up another summary. I was very impressed with the quality of speakers and their dedication to the field of Information Quality. The work shows a lot of innovative thinking and pride. (I’ll add in links and update later today)

Robert Grossman – Information Quality in the Cloud

Bob is part of the Open Cloud Consortium and passionate about the topic. He presented everything you need to know to understand where Cloud Computing is today, where it’s going next (based on open debate among dueling standards boards), and how it affects Information Quality discussions. He has a unique ability to take very complex topics and break them down into simple conversations.

The most interesting part for me was defining Public, Community and Private Clouds, which I couldn’t have described before this talk. I also appreciated his comment that Cloud is the only way to analyze 100TB of data, and that the alternative is to merely entomb it.

Delphine Clement - Cost of Non Quality Data

Delphine is from HP in France and discussed how they have approached their KQI – Key Quality Indicators. I like that KQIs mirror KPIs but that Information Quality is metadata reporting rather than business metrics so it’s separate. Delphine also presented a methodology for measuring direct vs. indirect cost savings from Data Quality initiatives. She has clearly spent a lot of time working on this approach and is doing a great job. I really enjoyed this presentation.

Lyn Robison - Diagnosing IT’s Impact on the Business

Lyn, from The Burton Group has a theory on how to measure data quality from an IT perspective, but I thought it was very pie in the sky. There were lots of questions about the politics of such an effort, and I don’t think the approach was practical. For instance, if your measured data quality metrics turn up as poor, the IT organization will blame the business. There’s no way this could work politically.

I liked that Lyn tried to compare the business people’s perception of Data Maturity vs. the IT perception, but how do you align IT perception and Business perception? Someone also asked, should IT be measured on poor data quality? The answer: Not if the Business owns the data.

Steve Sarsfield - Using Data Quality Scores to Sell IQ Value

Steve echoed others who encouraged Information Quality progress by “Leveraging a Crisis” to build momentum. He also asked us to present the “Do Nothing” approach, i.e. present to our management what would happen if they ignored the problem. Steve’s scoring method was based on the Trillium TS Insight product, but appeared to be a practical way to measure Data Quality. I think some of this can be done easily with or without Trillium, but I appreciated how the tool can manage the measurements over time.

Marillo Boccia – Data Quality in the Media Industry

Marillo is the Director of Database Marketing at Grupo Abril, the largest publisher in the Southern Hemisphere. He presented a project (done with the help of service provider Assesso) where his team personalized magazine ads for Banc Itau to 1.2 Million subscribers. Cool stuff. They merged their subscriber database with the bank’s and did a massive customer data cleanup to ensure very high data quality. They amazed their customers in the process.

Dan Defend and Aparna Vani - Data Quality Challenges for Yahoo’s Massive Data Environment

Dan and Aparna presented the Data Quality and Analytics sides respectively. They monitor website interaction and uncover trending and outage information by analyzing a constant flow of clickstream data. Their group deals iwth duplication challenges, security issues, and the need to report outage alerts instantly. Their work was also driven by past MIT IQIS conferences, and they presented their practical approach to establishing a central data quality process and framework.

MIT Information Quality Industry Symposium Day 1

I’m just settling in for Day 2 of the MIT IQIS 2009 and thought I’d throw out some thoughts for a couple of future posts I’m drafting. Here are the quick recaps from yesterday. 

Danette McGilvray - Ten Steps to Data and Trusted Information

A great primer on how to manage any Data  Quality project. Her 10 steps made a lot of sense. Not all of the methodology would be used for any given project, but still it worked for me. I also won her book, “Executing Data Quality Projects” in the drawing at the end of the class.

Bill Inmon - DW2.0 and Unstructured Data

After 10+ years in Data Warehousing I finally got to see Bill Inmon speak. Bill is the rockstar of the DW world. He’s regarded as the Father of Data Warehousing and treated as royalty at a conference like this. His new stuff was all about contextual ETL. Sounded interesting, but I believe there are others working on the same thing.

Keynote: Ronald Bechtold - Transforming the Army with High

Ronald is the Chief Data Officer at the Army. Cool title. Not what you’re picturing. He is a passionate CIO type who has a huge challenge. Definitely some words of wisdom in there. “Focus on solving problems,” rather than tools, technology or data. Good stuff!

Joe Bugajski - MDM Improves Information Quality to Deliver Value

Joe had some great examples where Data Quality actually led to increased revenue. Imagine that! Value from Data work. I think that’s what we’re all striving for. Joe is a big personality who speaks well, so this one was entertaining.

Mark Goloboy (that’s right, me) - CRM Data Quality for Sales and Marketing

After a bit of nerves, I found my groove and thought the presentation went really well. Some good questions about where my company started with Data Governance - it’s a very new ffocus or us. I also got to push back on some industry experts when asked why we weren’t focusing on MDM to start. Plus, Bill Inmon attended.

Martin Boyd - Product Data Quality Product from Silver Creek

More contextual analysis. Seemed to be done in a very smart way. The software was functional at big clients, and they had figured out how to solve some complex issues around improving poor product data. If they had the same thing for Customers, it would be a more interesting product. More development or a merger are needed here.