Introduction
As a data & AI strategist who’s seen countless projects succeed and fail, I have learned that data quality management really comes down to building the right foundation from day one. After years of implementation experience, I keep coming back to three fundamental steps that can make or break your data quality initiative.
The Foundation: Three Steps That Change Everything
When I walk into any organization to assess their data quality challenges, I always recommend starting with these three essential steps:
1. Meet with Data Consumers & Stakeholders
The first step? Talk to people, not systems. I interview department heads across the organization to map how data flows through their operations and document the pain points they’re experiencing. This goes way beyond a courtesy call because you are actually gathering intelligence that will shape everything that follows.
2. Define Data Tests
Once I understand how data is actually used, I help organizations build an automated testing suite that continuously monitors data quality against defined standards. The key here is transparency: everyone needs visibility into the quality of the data they are consuming.
3. Establish Data Quality Issue Resolution Workflows
Finally, I create step-by-step workflows that clearly define how to fix common data issues, who owns the resolution process, and what the expected timeframes are. No more mystery around data problems, just clear accountability and process.
Why These Three Steps Matter
When organizations implement all three steps properly, they unlock significant advantages:
Stakeholder Alignment from the Start: You gain a clear understanding of your data landscape and secure buy-in from the people who matter most – the actual data users.
Proactive Problem Detection: Instead of discovering data quality issues when they’ve already damaged business operations, automated monitoring catches problems early and reduces the manual effort required to maintain data integrity.
Efficient Problem Resolution: When issues do arise, there’s a consistent, well-defined approach to fixing them. This speed and consistency minimize business impact and steadily improves overall data reliability.
The Cost of Skipping the Foundation
I have also witnessed what happens when organizations try to shortcut these foundational steps. The damage is predictable and costly:
User Resistance and Misaligned Solutions: Building data quality systems without input from actual users creates solutions that don’t solve real problems, which results in resistance to adoption and wasted resources.
Reactive Crisis Management: Without proactive monitoring, data quality problems remain hidden until they cause business disruptions. By then, fixes are expensive, urgent, and often incomplete, leading to unreliable decision-making across the organization.
Persistent Data Quality Debt: When there is no clear resolution process, data quality issues accumulate like technical debt. Problems persist for months or years, gradually eroding trust in data systems and creating ongoing business friction.
The Bottom Line
Data quality management is a systematic challenge that requires human insight, automated vigilance, and clear processes. These three foundational steps aren’t glamorous, but they’re the difference between a data quality program that transforms your organization and one that becomes another abandoned initiative.
Start with people, automate the monitoring, and systematize the solutions. Get these three steps right, and you’ll have built a data quality foundation that can support whatever comes next.
My mission is to change your life in how you make everyday decisions based on proper data. I do this by helping corporate data leaders create and adopt data strategies built on Microsoft platforms using artificial intelligence. Over my 15+ year career, I have gained experience which I use to mentor clients and pass on to community as a speaker and data leader in the industry.
Jaroslav Reken
Co-Founder & Data Strategist
The post 3 things you must do to start data quality management right appeared first on Joyful Craftsmen.