Data Integrity - What Does It Really Mean? Why Is It Important?
June 9th, 2008 | by Nathan |The truth is, Data Integrity is essential to even the most rudimentary Information Visualizations.
No visualization is worth a thing if it leads you to the wrong conclusion.
Buzz words are carelessly tossed around in the attempt to impress (by subtle confusion) the intended audience.
buzz.word n. — A usually important-sounding word or phrase used primarily to impress laypersons.
More often than not people have varying perceptions of what buzz words actually mean, causing a barrier to clear communication.
What does Data Integrity really mean and why is it an important term for people to understand?
As the need to derive meaningful information from large sets of data becomes a higher priority both in the government and private sector, Data Integrity is what gives users the assurance that the information they see is trustworthy.
Many organizations build and rely on a Data Warehouse,
“…the main repository of an organization’s historical data, its corporate memory. It contains the raw material for management’s decision support system”
I believe I’ve identified a few definitions that hopefully embody what Data integrity is meant to be:
Data Integrity is a term that can mean ensuring data is “whole” or complete…
Put simply, data integrity is the assurance that data is consistent, correct, and accessible.
The author of Ensuring Data Integrity offers:
…Data Integrity is defined as information that adheres to a strict standard of value and completeness. That is, the data is both accurate and the entire population of relevant data is contained within the data warehouse.
The credibility of the data warehouse solely rests with the integrity of its data.
Data Integrity is clearly important and now it seems there are so many more questions:
- How does one ensure data integrity?
- How can the integrity of data be compromised?
- What activities go in to providing data integrity assurance?
- How is data integrty success/failure reported?
- What’s the worst that could happen if a little of my data lacks integrity?
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