08 November 2006

Robert Hawker - Collected Quotes

"[...] a conceptual data model [...] is system-agnostic and is a diagrammatic business representation of how different types of data are associated with one another in the organization." (Robert Hawker, "Practical Data Quality", 2023)

"A data quality rule is logic that is applied to each row of a dataset, which can determine whether the row of data is correct or incorrect. Correct data is deemed to have passed the rule, and incorrect data is deemed to have failed the rule – hence, the term failed data [...]" (Robert Hawker, "Practical Data Quality", 2023)

"Correction of data in the secondary source is not recommended. However, it is important to recognize that sometimes, secondary source fixes are required." (Robert Hawker, "Practical Data Quality", 2023)

"Data discovery is the process where an organization obtains an understanding of which data matters the most and identifies challenges with that data. The outcome of data discovery is that the scope of a data quality initiative should be clear and data quality rules can be defined." (Robert Hawker, "Practical Data Quality", 2023)

"Data profiling assesses a set of data and provides information on the values, the length of strings, the level of completeness, and the distribution patterns of each column." (Robert Hawker, "Practical Data Quality", 2023)

"Data quality rules are only effective if they are tightly scoped. Generic rules tend to produce a lot of unwanted failed records, and business users start to ignore the results. Once business users lose faith in what they see from a data quality tool, it is hard to restore engagement." (Robert Hawker, "Practical Data Quality", 2023)

"Every data quality initiative is different, and senior stakeholders at different organizations will have different needs." (Robert Hawker, "Practical Data Quality", 2023)

"If an organization had a single overall data quality key performance indicator (KPI), then it might be appropriate to put a greater weighting on those rules which would impact regulatory compliance. A lack of regulatory compliance is a risk to the very existence of organizations like these, and therefore, a greater weighting might be needed." (Robert Hawker, "Practical Data Quality", 2023)

"It rarely makes sense to aim for what people might consider perfect data (every record is complete, accurate, and up to date). The investment required is usually prohibitive, and the gains made for the last 1% of data quality improvement effort become far too marginal." (Robert Hawker, "Practical Data Quality", 2023)

"In truth, no one knows how much bad data quality costs a company – even companies with mature data quality initiatives in place, who are measuring hundreds of data points for their quality struggle to accurately measure quantitative impact. This is often a deal-breaker for senior leaders when trying to get approval for a budget for data quality work. Data quality initiatives often seek substantial budgets and are up against projects with more tangible benefits." (Robert Hawker, "Practical Data Quality", 2023)

"Momentum is important in data quality initiatives. If an issue is problematic, even where the priority is high, it can be better to move on to an issue that can be progressed efficiently." (Robert Hawker, "Practical Data Quality", 2023)

"Most data quality issues will re-occur if the root cause is not fully understood [...]" (Robert Hawker, "Practical Data Quality", 2023)

"Organizations will always only have a limited amount of resources available to remediate data. It will almost certainly not be possible to tackle all the issues at the same time. Therefore, prioritization is key to ensuring that the most value is generated from the available resources." (Robert Hawker, "Practical Data Quality", 2023)

"Successful organizations try to put a holistic data culture in place. Everyone is educated on the basics of looking after data and the importance of having good data. They consider what they have learned when performing their day-to-day tasks. This is often referred to as the promotion of good data literacy." (Robert Hawker, "Practical Data Quality", 2023)

"The biggest mistake that can be made in a data quality initiative is focusing on the wrong data. If you fix data that does not impact a critical business process or drive important decisions, your initiative simply will not make the difference that you want it to." (Robert Hawker, "Practical Data Quality", 2023)

"The data should be monitored in the source, it should be corrected in the source, and it should then feed the secondary source(s) with high-quality data that can be used without workarounds. The reduction in workarounds will make the data engineers, scientists, and data visualization specialists much more productive." (Robert Hawker, "Practical Data Quality", 2023)

"The level of data quality in an organization is the extent to which data can be used for its intended purposes."  (Robert Hawker, "Practical Data Quality", 2023)

"Start with a business strategy. Too many organizations start their data quality initiative by looking at the details of the data and trying to see 'what is wrong with it'. The right approach is to understand what the business is trying to achieve and to work out where data issues might impede this. It ensures that data quality work will be truly impactful." (Robert Hawker, "Practical Data Quality", 2023)

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IT Professional with more than 24 years experience in IT in the area of full life-cycle of Web/Desktop/Database Applications Development, Software Engineering, Consultancy, Data Management, Data Quality, Data Migrations, Reporting, ERP implementations & support, Team/Project/IT Management, etc.