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What Composes the DQ SLA?
Within any business process, the DQ SLA lists the expectations regarding measurableaspects relating to one or more dimensions of data quality (such as accuracy,completeness, consistency, timeliness, etc.), along with the specifications regardingconformance to those expectations. The DQ SLA also describes the processes to beinitiated when those expectations are not met, especially those related to evaluating theissue, diagnosing its cause, and determining how to solve the problem.Using a DQ SLA is valuable because it formalizes the processes that are put into place formanaging the way that the organization deals with emerging data issues. Theseagreements also suggest ways to track the data issue resolution progress as a way ofinternalizing lessons learned. If it is determined that data instances do not meet thedefined expectations, a data quality incident event is generated, and the appropriate staffmembers are notified to diagnose and mitigate the issues.
DQ SLAs and Data Issue Severity
One aspect of using a DQ SLA is the fact that the data quality expectations are defined inthe context of business impacts, and this can provide guidance to the data steward whendata issues are reported. Acceptability levels for measured data quality rules can bebased on the corresponding financial impacts and the organization’s degree of toleranceto the errors causing those impacts. Acceptability thresholds become the barometer bywhich severity of issues is measured, and the process of determining those thresholdsalso contributes the basis for determining severity during issue evaluation andassessment.
Triage: Evaluation and Assessment of the Data Quality Issue
There will always be a backlog of issues for review and consideration, created as abyproduct of weighing feasibility and cost effectiveness of a solution against therecognized business impact of the issue. When a data issue has been identified, theevaluation process will take into account these aspects of the identified issue:
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Criticality
– the degree to which the business processes are impaired by theexistence of the issue
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Frequency
– how often the issue has appeared
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Feasibility
of correction
– the likelihood of expending the effort to correct theresults of the failure
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Feasibility
of prevention
– the likelihood of expending the effort to eliminate theroot cause or institute continuous monitoring to detect the issuesThe triage process is performed to understand these aspects in terms of the businessimpact, the size of the problem, as well as the number of individuals or systems affected.Triage enables the data steward to review the general characteristics of the problem andbusiness impacts in preparation for assigning a level of severity and priority.
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