'Top-down and ground-up' approach should be taken to data quality

Organizations should look to view data quality issues as both a top-down and ground-up issue if they want to tackle problems, an expert has suggested.

This is according to Jim Harris, an independent consultant and blogger on the subject, who explained that any type of enterprise-wide initiative designed to improve processes needs to incorporate the two separate approaches.

"It needs to be a combination of both. I know a lot of people like to talk about top-down approaches, especially in relation to data governance, and I think any type of enterprise-wide program is going to need some type of top-down mandate or at least some top-down support or sponsorship from the executive level," he told IT Business Edge.

However, Mr Harris concedes that most of the change that is needed should come from those at the top level of an organization, who can lead by example.

A recent study conducted by Kalido has revealed that 80 percent of businesses questioned had procedures in place to measure data quality.