Organizational Realism Meets Information Quality Idealism: The Challenges of Keeping an Information Quality Initiative Going

While many seem to understand, in theory, the value of high-quality information, the realities of daily organizational dynamics may cause information quality projects to falter. In our conference paper last year, we described how Ingenix moved from ‘theory’ to an established Information Quality initiative, and how it laid the groundwork for its first and future information quality improvement projects. This paper describes the challenges and successes of keeping information quality initiatives going in the presence of development deadlines, the call of daily work activities, organizational dynamics, etc. The lessons learned from Ingenix provide insights for other organizations as they seek to keep information quality initiatives strong and healthy. One of the lessons/insights is that multiple, even dissimilar IQ (See acronyms, p. 12) efforts, carried out simultaneously can be as effective as a single overarching initiative. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Tim B. Kaufman Galaxy Architect. Mentor. Friend. 20 Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Information Quality