How Big is Your Data Quality Dashboard?

While I was at a Data Quality conference in London, an executive was frustrated that the conversation he kept having with his stakeholders was that he needed to provide one comprehensive data quality dashboard to manage all data in a certain data domain. His stakeholders were keen to have their view into quality - covering a variety of areas including risk, operations, business lines, etc. They wanted to choose their own adventure and it was a very big adventure.

The temptation is obvious - provide the stakeholders with what they want, as they are funding the program.  Care should be taken here though, as regulators, who are the driver of BCBS 239 and other similar regulations, require firms to have a single view of the truth for critical data. I recommended to this executive that he "walks" before he "runs" by ensuring that he has a scorecard in place that satisfies the data quality requirements for critical data. Once this is in hand, he should put into place specific rules and views for specific organizational units.Organizations often attempt to address all needs at once. Focus is important, and using regulatory priority is helpful to sort out the requirements from the "wants" in your business. Further, it helps you get individuals to agree to what is critical data and how to create a common vocabulary for those data elements. This approach creates predictable patterns that can be leveraged to ensure that you are in control.

Your business and regulators have this in common - a controlled data environment is required to enable supervision by regulators and predictable business results for your organization. Once in control, enjoy the journey from walking to running.