Data Quality and Data Integration

Data-driven decision is fast replacing intuition-based decisions. Data driven decisions are always secular and objective. Whereas intuition-based decisions more often than not are influenced by experience and may be biased. In fact the acceptance of data-driven decision or insistence on practicing it is advocated very vigorously by business leaders. There is an anecdote in which N.R. Nayarana Murthy, founder Infosys told his colleagues that " In God we trust, all others must bring data to the table"

It is said that " decision is no better than the data used to make it". Hence data is new resource. Well then like most resources- data occurs in raw form and needs to be refined before it can be used effectively. The new discipline that ensures the availability of right data, in right form and in time is termed Data Quality.

Like many other natural and made resource data is scattered in multiple location. Data needed for a given decision process must be identified along with its sources and location and should be gathered before it can be used. This process of putting data readily available  for decision makers before hand from scouting it from different sources- databases, logs is a another discipline called Data Integration.