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Traceability

Characteristic Name: Traceability
Dimension: Reliability and Credibility
Description: The lineage of the data is verifiable
Granularity: Record
Implementation Type: Process-based approach
Characteristic Type: Usage

Verification Metric:

The number of tasks failed or under performed due to lack of traceability in data
The number of complaints received due to lack of traceability in data

GuidelinesExamplesDefinitons

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

Guidelines: Scenario:
Maintain provenance records for the events such as creation, update,transcription, abstraction, validation and transforming ownership, if the data are dynamic. (1) Inventory system shows the current stocks and keep records for all the transactions that the stocks are subjected to
In case of multiple sources are available for same data/information, implement a traceability mechanism to view all versions from multiple sources (1) Content management systems
Maintain proper protocols/standards/policy to archive data (1) Every invoice is archived after 120 days of payments.
Maintain versions of data records where necessary (1) Customer versions

Validation Metric:

How mature is the process to maintain traceability in data

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

Example: Source:
minutes of a meeting will be produced in draft form and reviewed by the members of the committee before being approved. Once this process of creation is finished the record must be fixed and must not be susceptible to change. If a record is changed or manipulated in some way, it no longer provides evidence of the transaction it originally documented. For example, if someone alters the minutes of a meeting after they have been approved, the minutes can no longer be considered an accurate record of the meeting. This is another issue that becomes more important in an electronic context. K. Smith, “Public Sector Records Management: A Practical Guide”, Ashgate, 2007.

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

Definition: Source:
Is the background of the information visible (author, date etc.)? EPPLER, M. J. 2006. Managing information quality: increasing the value of information in knowledge-intensive products and processes, Springer.
A data provanance record can include information about creation, update, transcription, abstraction, validation and transforming ownership of data. ISO 2012. ISO 8000-2 Data Quality-Part 2-Vocabulary. ISO.
The extent to which the correctness of information is verifiable or provable in the context of a particular activity. STVILIA, B., GASSER, L., TWIDALE, M. B. & SMITH, L. C. 2007. A framework for information quality assessment. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58, 1720-1733.

 

Data volume

Characteristic Name: Data volume
Dimension: Completeness
Description: The volume of data is neither deficient nor overwhelming to perform an intended task
Granularity: Information object
Implementation Type: Process-based approach
Characteristic Type: Usage

Verification Metric:

The number of tasks failed or under performed due to not meeting the right volume of data
The number of complaints received due to volume related issues

GuidelinesExamplesDefinitons

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

Guidelines: Scenario:
Define the scope of data in terms of organisational coverage to perform a business activity (1) At least 70% of the production units should submit data to calculate total production efficiency of the company
Define the scope of data in terms of activities relates to any business task (1) Pages with more than thousand
hits per day and above are considered for the analysis
Define the scope of data in terms of the population of data which is under concern (1) At least 10% of the population of white blood cells in the culture should be collected as samples to calculate its growth
Define an appropriate amount of records in terms of lower limit and upper limit for any task (1) At least six responses should be available to evaluate a tutor's skills and competency.

Validation Metric:

How mature is the process of defining and maintaining appropriate data volumes of data

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

Example: Source:
At the end of the first week of the Autumn term, data analysis was performed on the ‘First Emergency Contact Telephone Number’ data item in the Contact table. There are 300 students in the school and 294 out of a potential 300 records were populated, therefore 294/300 x 100 = 98% completeness has been achieved for this data item in the Contact table. 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 availability and comprehensiveness of data compared to the total data universe or population of interest. D. McGilvray, “Executing Data Quality Projects: Ten Steps to Quality Data and Trusted Information”, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2008.
Is the scope of information adequate? (not too much nor too little). EPPLER, M. J. 2006. Managing information quality: increasing the value of information in knowledge-intensive products and processes, Springer.
Degree of presence of data in a given collection. SCANNAPIECO, M. & CATARCI, T. 2002. Data quality under a computer science perspective. Archivi & Computer, 2, 1-15.
The quantity or volume of available data is appropriate WANG, R. Y. & STRONG, D. M. 1996. Beyond accuracy: What data quality means to data consumers. Journal of management information systems, 5-33.