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Completeness of mandatory attributes

Characteristic Name: Completeness of mandatory attributes
Dimension: Completeness
Description: The attributes which are mandatory for a complete representation of a real world entity must contain values and cannot be null .
Granularity: Element
Implementation Type: Rule-based approach
Characteristic Type: Declarative

Verification Metric:

The number of null values reported in a mandatory attribute per thousand records

GuidelinesExamplesDefinitons

The implementation guidelines are guidelines to follow in regard to the characteristic. The scenarios are examples of the implementation

Guidelines: Scenario:
Specify which attributes are required to maintain a meaningful representation of an entity. 1) A sales order should at least have values for order number, Quantity, Price and Total (Sales order is the record)
Specify the states of an entity where the above identified attributes become mandatory values (1)Order number quantity and total should be available as mandatory by the time order is created whereas price will become mandatory when the order is approved. (States :"Order created" "Order approved") (2) Product is retired and now has a product-last-available-date
Specify the dependencies of entities in operational context to identify the mandatory values (1)Invoice number should exist to create a gate pass
Specify default values where possible (1) Default country is Australia for those who fill the application from Australian IP addresses

Validation Metric:

How mature is the creation and implementation of the DQ rules to handle mandatory values

These are examples of how the characteristic might occur in a database.

Example: Source:
1) Let us consider a Person relation with the attributes Name, Surname, BirthDate,and Email. The relation is shown in Figure 2.2. For the tuples with Id equalto2,3,and 4, the Email value is NULL. Let us suppose that the person represented by tuple 2 has no e-mail: no incompleteness case occurs. If the person represented by tuple 3 has an e-mail, but its value is not known then tuple 3 presents an incompleteness. Finally, if it is not known whether the person represented by tuple 4 has an e-mail or not, incompleteness may not be the case.

ID 1

2 3 4

Name John

Edward Anthony Marianne

Surname Smith

Monroe White Collins

BirthDate 03/17/1974 02/03/1967 01/01/1936 11/20/1955

Email

smith@abc.it NULL NULL NULL

not existing existing but unknown not known if existing

Fig. 2.2. The Person relation, with different null value meanings for the e-mail attribute

2) if Dept is a relation representing the employees of a given department, and one specific employee of the department is not represented as a tuple of Dept, then the tuple corresponding to the missing employee is in ref(Dept),and ref(Dept) differs from Dept in exactly that tuple.

C. Batini and M, Scannapieco, “Data Quality: Concepts, Methodologies, and Techniques”, Springer, 2006.
if a column should contain at least one occurrence of all 50 states, but the column contains only 43 states, then the population is incomplete. Y. Lee, et al., “Journey to Data Quality”, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2006.
1) A database contains information on repairs done to capital equipment. How- ever, it is a known fact that sometimes the repairs are done and the information about the repair is just not entered into the database. This is the result of lack of concern on the part of the repair people and a lack of enforcement on the part of their supervisors. It is estimated that the amount of missing information is about 5%. This database is probably a good-quality database for assessing the general health of capital equipment. Equipment that required a great deal of expense to maintain can be identified from the data. Unless the missing data is disproportionately skewed, the records are usable for all ordinary decisions. However, trying to use it as a base for evaluating information makes it a low-quality database. The missing transactions could easily tag an important piece of equipment as satisfying a warranty when in fact it does not.

2) a BIRTH_DATE value left blank would not be accurate because all of us have birth dates.

J. E. Olson, “Data Quality: The Accuracy Dimension”, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 9 January 2003.

The Definitions are examples of the characteristic that appear in the sources provided.

Definition: Source:
Domain Level: Data element is 1. Always required be populating and not defaulting; or 2. Required based on the condition of another data element. Entity Level: The required domains that comprise an entity exist and are not defaulted in aggregate. B. BYRNE, J. K., D. MCCARTY, G. SAUTER, H. SMITH, P WORCESTER 2008. The information perspective of SOA design Part 6:The value of applying the data quality analysis pattern in SOA. IBM corporation.
A given data element (fact) has a full value stored for all records that should have a value. ENGLISH, L. P. 2009. Information quality applied: Best practices for improving business information, processes and systems, Wiley Publishing.
Determined the extent to which data is not missing. For example, an order is not complete without a price and quantity. G. GATLING, C. B., R. CHAMPLIN, H. STEFANI, G. WEIGEL 2007. Enterprise Information Management with SAP, Boston, Galileo Press Inc.
Completeness refers to the expectation that certain attributes are expected to have assigned values in a data set. Completeness rules can be assigned to a data set in three levels of constraints: 1. Mandatory attributes that require a value 3. Inapplicable attributes (such as maiden name for a single male), which may not have a value.2. Optional attributes, which may have a value. LOSHIN, D. 2001. Enterprise knowledge management: The data quality approach, Morgan Kaufmann Pub.
An expectation of completeness indicates that certain attributes should be assigned values in a data set. Completeness rules can be assigned to a data set in three levels of constraints:1. Mandatory attributes that require a value, 2. Optional attributes, which may have a value based on some set of conditions, and 3. Inapplicable attributes, (such as maiden name for a single male), which may not have a value. LOSHIN, D. 2006. Monitoring Data quality Performance using Data Quality Metrics. Informatica Corporation.

 

Standards and regulatory compliance

Characteristic Name: Standards and regulatory compliance
Dimension: Validity
Description: All data processing activities should comply with the policies, procedures, standards, industry benchmark practices and all regulatory requirements that the organization is bound by
Granularity: Information object
Implementation Type: Process-based approach
Characteristic Type: Usage

Verification Metric:

The number of tasks failed or under performed due non adherence of standards and regulations
The number of complaints received due to non adherence to standards and regulations

GuidelinesExamplesDefinitons

The implementation guidelines are guidelines to follow in regard to the characteristic. The scenarios are examples of the implementation

Guidelines: Scenario:
Identify the policies, procedures, standards, benchmark practices and any regulatory requirements that an Information object is bound by (1) Each person's compensation criteria must be determined in accordance with the Annuities Based on Retired or Retainer Pay law.
Ensure that all data processing activities are well defined and documented based on the policies, procedures, standards, benchmarks and regulatory requirements. (1) Process of making a damage estimate is well defined based on industry benchmarks
Ensure that the application programs cater for standards and regulatory compliance (1) A software program to make damage estimates which includes all benchmark data
Regularly monitor the data processing activities and identify the problems and inefficiencies so that the corrective and preventive actions can be taken. (1) Frequent delays in time sheet approvals results in delayed payments
Signs should be standardised and universally used (1) In the line efficiency report, low efficiency lines are indicated using a RED light while a green light indicates high efficiency
Relevant standard, procedures, policies and regulations should be communicated to the users effectively (1) Providing a guidelines for signs
Ensure that proper conversion tables are maintained and used in converting attribute vales to different measurement bases. (1) Metric conversion tables are used to convert lbs to kgs.

Validation Metric:

How mature is the process maintain the adherence to standards and regulations

These are examples of how the characteristic might occur in a database.

Example: Source:
The age at entry to a UK primary & junior school is captured on the form for school applications. This is entered into a database and checked that it is between 4 and 11. If it were captured on the form as 14 or N/A it would be rejected as invalid. N. Askham, et al., “The Six Primary Dimensions for Data Quality Assessment: Defining Data Quality Dimensions”, DAMA UK Working Group, 2013.

The Definitions are examples of the characteristic that appear in the sources provided.

Definition: Source:
A measure of the existence, completeness, quality, and documentation of data standards, data models, business rules, metadata, and reference data. D. McGilvray, “Executing Data Quality Projects: Ten Steps to Quality Data and Trusted Information”, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2008.
The data element has a commonly agreed upon enterprise business definition and calculations. B. BYRNE, J. K., D. MCCARTY, G. SAUTER, H. SMITH, P WORCESTER 2008. The information perspective of SOA design Part 6:The value of applying the data quality analysis pattern in SOA. IBM corporation.
SIGNS AND OTHER Information-Bearing Mechanisms like Traffic Signals should be standardized and universally used across the broadest audience possible. ENGLISH, L. P. 2009. Information quality applied: Best practices for improving business information, processes and systems, Wiley Publishing.
Validity of data refers to data that has been collected in accordance with any rules or definitions that are applicable for that data. This will enable benchmarking between organisations and over time. HIQA 2011. International Review of Data Quality Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), Ireland. http://www.hiqa.ie/press-release/2011-04-28-international-review-data-quality.