One other thing to overcome and an observation:

SEP – Somebody Else’s Problem – Data quality is one of those issues that tends to suffer from the SEP syndrome – people may recognise the problem, or at least the symptoms, but believe it is down to somebody else to fix. Unless they are told that it is their problem to deal with, or they are brave/foolish/enlightened/ignorant and volunteer for the role!

The other point which may help sell the idea of data quality improvement is to requote yourself, I think Dylan – “Data quality is free, poor data quality is an unnecessary cost”. This aligns with the scrap/rework idea and the motivation to improve effectiveness and efficiency. This will also tend to be an easier concept for senior management to grasp (i.e. unnecessary cost) than harder to grasp concepts of data quality.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jim Harris: New @DataFlux COE blog post from @dylanjonesuk: “The Five Pillars of #DataQuality Procrastination” – http://bit.ly/6Fj7QR...

I don’t think that resources is solely a money issue, if we take your example of a migration, I have experienced procrastination because the legacy system designers have moved on so there is a lack of skilled knowledge, sponsors felt nervous of proceeding as a result.

Appreciate your comments, thank you.

Excellent posting! I have to add one, though, which is the obstacle I face the most: No time!

I usually get: “yes, we know this would be great, we see the value in it, but we simply don’t have the time to do it right now.”

It happens a lot especially during data migration, when we have a great opportunity to avoid GIGO (garbage-in/garbage-out), but the deadlines are so tough, that we can’t do a great job. “We’ll fix it in the new system.” Yeah, right!

There is also the normal: No Resource, but I guess that falls into your No Money category.

Great posting!
Dalton.