Data Resource Quality: Turning Bad Habits into Good Practices [Paperback]

Michael H. Brackett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 18, 2000

Poor data quality hampers today's organizations in many ways: it makes data warehousing and knowledge management applications more expensive and less effective, presents major obstacles to e-Business transformation, slashes day-to-day employee productivity, and translates directly into poor strategic and tactical decisions. In this book, data expert Michael Brackett presents ten "bad habits" that lead to poor data -- and ten proven solutions that enable business managers to transform these bad habits into best practices. Data Resource Quality is organized around ten "bad habits" organizations have fallen into: habits that inevitably reduce data quality, waste resources, increase the cost of using and maintaining data resources, and compromise business strategies. In each case, Brackett shows how the "bad habits" evolved, and exactly how to replace them with best practices that can dramatically improve data quality, starting now. Along the way, Brackett demonstrates exactly how to implement a solid foundation for quality data -- an organization-wide, integrated, subject-oriented data architecture -- and then build a high-quality data resource within that architecture. For all IT managers, consultants, and application users -- in both large and small enterprises.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Michael Brackett provides a wake-up call for information technology managers around the world. We can continue with our current practices, slowing down our ability to compete, or we can buckle down and focus on the basics of improving data quality. This book provides a look at the fundamentals of good data management practice. Use it well."
—From the Foreword by Ron Shelby, Chief Information Officer, e-GM

Poor data quality impacts every facet of today's private enterprises and public organizations. The deplorable condition of this critical resource in organizations around the world lowers productivity, impedes the creation of decision support systems (such as data warehousing), and hinders the development of e-commerce and other strategic initiatives. The future success of organizations will greatly depend on how well they design and maintain their data resources.

Written by a world expert in data resources, Data Resource Quality features the ten most fundamental and frequently exhibited bad habits that contribute to poor data quality, and presents the strategies and best practices for effective solutions. With this information, IT managers will be better equipped to implement an organization-wide, integrated, subject-oriented data architecture and within that architecture build a high-quality data resource. The result: reduced data disparity and duplication, increased productivity, and improved data understanding and utilization.

Covering both data architecture and data management issues, the book describes the impact of poor data practices, demonstrates more effective approaches, and reveals implementation pointers for quick results. Readers will find coverage of such vital data quality issues as:

• The need for formal data names and comprehensive data definitions
• Proper data structures, covering the entity-relation diagram and the combined three-tier and five-schema structure
• Precise data integrity rules
• Robust data documentation
• Reasonable data orientation, including business subject, business client, and single-architecture orientation
• Acceptable data availability issues, covering backup, recovery, and privacy
• Adequate data responsibility, discussing authorized stewardship, centralized control, and procedures
• Expanded data vision for improved business support
• More appropriate data recognition leading to better data targeting within the organization

With these strategies for successful data resource development, IT managers will be able to set a proper course for an efficient and profitable long-term data resource solution.

0201713063B04062001

About the Author

Michael H. Brackett is an acknowledged leader in the field of data processing. During his forty-year career, he has originated many innovations, including the common data architecture concept, the data resource framework, and the business intelligence value chain. The founder of Data Resource Design and Remodeling, he served as the state of Washington's Data Resource Coordinator, where he developed a common data architecture for the state that spans multiple jurisdictions and disciplines. In addition, he has taught data design and modeling at the University of Washington and has written five books on the topic, including The Data Warehouse Challenge: Taming Data Chaos (Wiley). He currently serves as president of DAMA International.

0201713063AB04062001

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (September 18, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201713063
• ISBN-13: 978-0201713060
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,994,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks Mike - Great book!, December 21, 2000

By 

Michael Bingle (Basking Ridge, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Data Resource Quality: Turning Bad Habits into Good Practices (Paperback)

Once again Michael Brackett does a great job. I've often thought that Michael is a perfectionist. However, I see more clearly now that he is a wounded soldier that has experienced the battles of data administration.

You will find this book exciting - I mean is you love the topic. Michael dictates the "right" way to set up data administration and the ramifications of not doing so.

The book is full of suggestions and pointed comments. I believe that Michael knows the subject as well as anyone, and has a vengence to correct the chaos that is currently prevalent in this area.

Buy it! Read it! Then re-read it! Wait about 6 months and read it again until it sinks in. He's right on target with this one.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book from the master of the field, March 24, 2001

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Data Resource Quality: Turning Bad Habits into Good Practices (Paperback)

Anyone who has read Brackett previous books knows that his contribution to the data quality arena is fundamental.

This books is important because it states the business case for quality data in clear terms and also provides tools and guidelines to succeed in that long (very long ) journey