The authors, all leaders in the data quality field for many years, discuss how to make the economic case for data quality and the importance of getting an organization's leaders on board. They outline different approaches for assessing data, both subjectively (by users) and objectively (using sampling and other techniques). They describe real problems and solutions, including efforts to find the root causes of data quality problems at a healthcare organization and data quality initiatives taken by a large teaching hospital. They address setting company policy on data quality and, finally, they consider future challenges on the journey to data quality. (available at The MIT Press, ICIQ Conference Discount Coupon, also discount at amazon.com

Craig Fisher, Eitel Lauría, Shobha Chengalur-Smith, Richard Wang

Table of Contents [PDF]

What: This book will educate people about the critical issues in data and information quality that have been plaguing information systems for many years. Researchers have only recently begun to address data quality as a discipline in its own right, and a body of data quality literature has just begun to appear. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) began a total data quality management program and have hosted ten international conferences on information quality aimed at practitioners, academicians, and researchers. This book is built on two primary sources. After an extensive literature review and study, an importance of data quality knowledge and skills survey was completed by 110 data quality researchers and practitioners, all data quality leaders in their own right, at the International Conference on Information Quality held at MIT. The results of these studies led to a consensus of the most critical skills necessary to begin performing information quality work. An introduction to those critical skills and knowledge areas are the primary topics of this book. The second source is the research into data and information quality of the four authors who collectively have published over 100 articles.

Who: Information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) professionals, systems and business analysts. The primary target for this book is upper-level undergraduate students who are majoring in IS, IT, management information systems (MIS), marketing, economics, accounting, or business administration. It can also be used as a text in undergraduate courses such as data/information quality in information systems, or as supplemental reading in a variety of related courses. These include database design, data management, data warehousing, TQM, data mining, decision support systems, and business intelligence. It may also serve as supplemental reading in a graduate course or in a variety of industrial courses and public sector seminars that focus on information quality.

Why: The current curricula include computer programming, database analysis and development, systems analysis and systems design, data communications, project management, and various related courses. The IS profession includes the formal application of specific methodologies for developing and implementing systems. Given the well-entrenched IS curriculum, many may ask why we need to focus on data quality. Some would say we cover data quality in data management or in programming. However, there is no denying that even with the education and methodologies, there have been tremendous adverse effects of poor-quality data and information throughout our society. Almost all businesses, government organizations, hospitals, educational institutions, and individuals have been hurt by data quality problems. The authors are convinced an organized discipline for data and information quality is sorely needed. Chapters 1–4 provide a broad basis for understanding the concepts and philosophy of data and information quality. Subsequent chapters build on these concepts by introducing tools and techniques essential for a data quality analyst to make improvements.

When: 1st Edition - 1st printing (Dec. 2005), 2nd printing (Mar. 2006)

Where to buy:

Editors: Richard Wang, Elizabeth Pierce, Stuart Madnick,  and Craig Fisher

(Available at Amazon.com)