ISO 8000 - A Standard for Data Quality
Logistics Spectrum , Oct-Dec 2007 by Grantner, Emily
A system is only as good as the data within that system. An increasing amount of organizations are discovering this as they upgrade older legacy systems into Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. New technologies in today's world have played an enormous role in the complexity of information sharing. The additions of the Internet and revelations in interface design have resulted in companies being closely intertwined with each other and the consumer. With the simultaneous transfer of information constantly taking place, it is more important than ever for manufacturers to be able to transmit and display quality data.
A basic, but crucial component of data quality is that data must be correct and accessible among systems. If data is not correct, organizations end up with errors, duplicates and inconsistencies resulting in extra costs, rework, and wasted time, in addition to a loss of system credibility and system reliability. For these reasons and more various industries and governments continue to spend large amounts of money on data quality initiatives.
The Defense Logistics Information Service (DLIS) is similar in this regard and has set in motion numerous initiatives to improve data quality within its systems and programs. DLIS is an installation of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) under the Department of Defense (DoD). As the "information brokers" of the DoD, DLIS follows the DLA motto of "right item, right service, right place, right price, right time, every time." It manages several databases that facilitate the identification, supply, maintenance and transportation of defense items. One such system is the Federal Logistics Information System (FLIS), which provides automated data on the Federal Catalog System (FCS) and descriptions of items of supply for the United States' fighting forces. It serves as the common frame of reference that enables buyers in DoD to communicate with the nation's industrial base that produces the supplies and equipment used by the Military.
In an effort to address the wasted time and money spent on data quality issues revolving around item identification in particular, work began on an international standard for data quality. DLIS, working in conjunction with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the Electronic Commerce Code Management Association (ECCMA) and others, has been involved with an important data quality effort known as ISO 8000, the international standard for data quality.
The ISO 8000 series of standards are concerned with the principles of data quality, the characteristics of data that determine its quality and the processes to assure data quality. The standard defines a certification process for data similar in concept to the certification process for quality processes embodied in the ISO 9000 series of standards.
The first part of ISO 8000 to be published is Part 110, which specifies requirements on master data with regard to syntax, semantic encoding and conformance to data specification for the purpose of achieving master data quality. Master data, as defined in the standard, refers to data held by an organization that describes the entities that are both independent and fundamental for that organization, and that it needs to reference in order to perform its transactions. Within this part of the standard the compliance requirements necessary for the exchange of master data are described. This allows organizations to become certified as ISO 8000 Part 110 compliant. Both data providers and data managers can become certified, as long as they can either provide or receive data formatted to ISO 8000 Part 110 requirements.
One of the ways to build master data that meets the ISO 8000 Part 110 data quality specifications is to use ISO 22745, which is a standard that defines open technical dictionaries and their application to master data. Within this standard are rules for the maintenance of an open technical dictionary, as well as rules for defining and exchanging master data. The ECCMA Open Technical Dictionary (eOTD) is an example of an ISO 22745 compliant open technical dictionary. The eOTD was built on the principles of the Military NATO Codification System (NCS) and the FCS currently used by the DoD. It is used to unambiguously code and decode descriptions of individuals, organizations, locations, goods and services. An eOTD catalog is composed of Extensible Markup Language (XML) files that contain information explicitly encoded using eOTD concept identifiers.
The key principle behind both ISO 8000 and ISO 22745 is item identification and the naming of an item. A pen can be called many different names - ink pen, ballpoint pen, etc. In a world with millions of items of supply that can be purchased by many different buyers from many different suppliers, it is crucial to be able to commonly identify and describe your data. When classifications and descriptions do not transfer, an organization ends up with problems, and then has to go back and identify what the name actually refers to. The eOTD will remedy this problem by the use of a singular concept identifying number which means that associations can be made with other names and definitions from other organizations or industries. As previously stated, the eOTD is based on the NCS and has all of the NATO approved item names and definitions. The eOTD can incorporate other naming conventions by linking those naming conventions into a singular concept, which the eOTD then stores. This eliminates the need for organizations to convert to a singular standard naming system; each organization can keep their own names and just link them to the one concept identifier within the eOTD.
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