Data quality is a business problem, not an IT problem. Technology is not going to solve the problem. The business side needs to be involved in being accountable for the data quality and in maintaining the data. Business users know what the data should look like; IT knows where it is and how to access it. Without cooperation and support of both the business staff and IT, the data tends to not meet the needs of the company.

Another mistake is to believe that data quality is a “once done complete” approach. Data quality has to be monitored for consistency and value. Different stakeholders have different data needs. The importance of data also varies over time – what is useful today may not be relevant down the line.