Introduction to Data Quality course launched

We need good quality data to build services and make policy. But does everyone know what data quality means? Do they understand why it matters? Or how they can maintain quality in the data they handle?

Today we are launching a new training course that could help answer these questions. It covers the basics of data quality, structured around the principles in the Government Data Quality Framework. We have designed it with modules:

• Commit to data quality – aimed at everyone, this module introduces the concept of data quality and why it’s so important for government data.

• Know your users and their needs – aimed at everyone, this module explains how quality varies between users and across the data lifecycle.

• Assess quality: Dimensions – for people who assess quality or manage data, this module introduces the six dimensions of good data quality.

• Assess quality: Improvements – for people who manage data, this module covers the importance of effective improvements that tackle the cause not the symptoms of quality problems.

• Assess quality: Good data quality management – for people who manage data, this module introduces concepts that bring together good quality assessments and good improvements to form better ongoing management of data quality.

• Communicate quality – for people managing, sharing, or using data, this module covers the importance of clearly communicating data quality and some of the routes available.

• Anticipate change – for people managing data, this module includes examples of how change might be an opportunity to improve data quality.

This does not mean the principles are relevant only to the roles mentioned above, but this is the focus of the current training course.

Access the course online. In the future, we plan to host this course on the Learning Platform for Government but currently this is not possible.

We know this is just the beginning. The course is designed to provide an introduction to the subject of data quality and how it is managed in government. We will be following it up with more focused training dealing with some of these subjects in more detail.

Thank you to all the colleagues across government who have tested early versions of this course and helped us shape the content.