April Fools' Day... A Data Quality & Governance Problem?
April Fools Day is a fun day in my family. First off, my wife always gets me with a "there's a spider on you" joke. Each year I say to myself "I'm not going to fall for it" but this morning as I was leaving for work and gave her a goodbye peck on the cheek as she slept she opened her eyes and said "there's a spider on your shirt!" and sure enough I freaked out, go figure...
Origins of April Fools' Day and it's association to data quality and governance
The all-knowing WikiPedia states that perhaps the origin of April Fools' Day was due to a "copying error in the extant manuscripts" of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and has something to do with a fox tricking a bird. I think it's safe to say the "copying error" could be considered a medieval data quality error, right?
This article sent to us here at work points the finger at the adoption of the Gregorian calendar from the Julian calendar in France for the "snooty" and the "snooty" calling those who did not adopt the newer/cooler calendar "fools". I'd more likely call this one a data governance error as the failure lies with the folks in charge not setting the right direction and policies for the rest of the team who were working with the data. Not only did the folks in charge make a policy change and not communicate the change to the common folk (a.k.a. "fools"), they made fun of them by calling them "fools" and played cruel jokes on them. In retrospect, I think we all know who the real fools were, but heck, they didn't care, they were having fun, kinda sounds like some shop's "senior management"?
Well, history lesson complete, I bet there are lots of other examples but I've got to get to work!
Until next time...Rich
Origins of April Fools' Day and it's association to data quality and governance
The all-knowing WikiPedia states that perhaps the origin of April Fools' Day was due to a "copying error in the extant manuscripts" of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and has something to do with a fox tricking a bird. I think it's safe to say the "copying error" could be considered a medieval data quality error, right?
This article sent to us here at work points the finger at the adoption of the Gregorian calendar from the Julian calendar in France for the "snooty" and the "snooty" calling those who did not adopt the newer/cooler calendar "fools". I'd more likely call this one a data governance error as the failure lies with the folks in charge not setting the right direction and policies for the rest of the team who were working with the data. Not only did the folks in charge make a policy change and not communicate the change to the common folk (a.k.a. "fools"), they made fun of them by calling them "fools" and played cruel jokes on them. In retrospect, I think we all know who the real fools were, but heck, they didn't care, they were having fun, kinda sounds like some shop's "senior management"?
Well, history lesson complete, I bet there are lots of other examples but I've got to get to work!
Until next time...Rich
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