Menu

Artificial Intelligence

Data Quality

Plain English

How good your is.

Definition

quality is the degree to which data is accurate, complete, consistent, and reliable enough for the purpose it is being used for. It sets the ceiling on every decision, report, and built on top of it.

In practice

Used to assess whether is fit for analysis, decision-making, or training.

In context

It gets discovered rather than measured, usually when a report shows something impossible and the investigation finds a field that has meant two different things since 2021.

The reality

Poor quality is one of the biggest causes of bad decisions and failures.

Compared with

Data Quality vs Data Governance

Quality is the state of the now: accurate, complete, consistent. is the of ownership and rules that keeps it that way. Cleaning without governing means cleaning again next year.

FAQ

Common questions

A few practical answers to the questions that usually come up around this term.

What is data quality?

It is the measure of how accurate and reliable is.

Why is data quality important?

It affects decisions, , and .

What defines good data quality?

Accuracy, completeness, and .

What happens with poor data quality?

It to incorrect and unreliable .

Related Services

Related Guides

Related Terms

LET'S WORK TOGETHER

Ready to improve your product?

UX, research and product leadership for teams tackling complex digital services.

Previous feedback

I had a fantastic experience working with Andy. One of his most impressive achievements during our time at NHS HEE was masterminding a deeply complex information architecture for a new platform that brought together a large number of legacy websites.

Will Parkhouse

Senior Content Designer