Improving Data Warehouse and Business Information Quality (Book Review)

The main theme in this book is that data is a material for informational product and (like in manufacturing) the quality of the product is determined by customer satisfaction. According to the book, everyone in the organization has a role in establishing and maintaining information quality to deliver a quality product to the customer. thus actuaries, as consumers of information, should establish data quality standards and communicate their data quality requirements to the stewards of all their data sources. The book is multifaceted; it is "a concept book, a textbook, a reference book, and a practitioner's guide." it is generic enough to cover a lot of ground (scenarios, situations, setups) while detailed enough to serve as a step-by-step guide full of relevant examples. Throughout the book the author consistently uses a 4-part template for every proposed step (Input, Output, Techniques & Tools and Process Description) which make the text immensely useful. The book is divided into three sections: "Principles of Information Quality Improvement," "Processes for Improving Information Quality" and "Establishing the Information Quality Environment." The author gives equal weights to the notion of achieving data quality and to the notion of maintaining it. The book contains a wealth of ideas and techniques that can be used by everyone in the information value chain in carrying out their information quality stewardship responsibilities.