Data Quality Assessment Methodolody--A Framework

• Activity Number: 251
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Government Statistics*
• Author(s): Eugene Burns*+
• Affiliation(s): U.S. Department of Transportation
• Keywords: data quality ; quality ; assessment ; measurement ; federal

Abstract

Data quality is crucial for the credibility of a statistical organization. This paper highlights the data quality assessment methodology developed and employed at the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), an independent statistical agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). The mission of BTS is to lead in developing transportation data and information of high quality, and to advance their effective use in decision making. Assessing the quality of USDOT statistical data systems is an integral part of this mission. The results of the data quality assessment support USDOT's performance measurement initiatives in compliance with the Government Performance and Results ACT (GPRA) and reaffirm the quality of the data disseminated by USDOT to users and stakeholders.

A review of the literature on data quality, together with the inclusion of the strategic goals and objectives of BTS, contributed to the evolution and development of the data quality assessment framework. The framework has three internally consistent components: quality criteria, data system metadata, and rating measures. The paper describes these components and their derivation in detail.