Difference between data consistency and data quality

[former_member342013]

Hi Team,

I read too many ans in google regarding my question but unable to get the appropriate ans. Can any one please tell me the difference by giving simple example that relate to SAP which would help me in preparing presentation on data migration.

[former_member42743 · Accepted solution]

From my perspective in QM, I look at these things as follows:

Data consistency - My data matches the values allowed for the field and meets all the criteria for data loading.

Data quality - The data provided correctly matches the desired business practice.

For instance: I might have a business rule that all batch managed materials require a shelf life, a period indicator and a rounding rule. Maybe some materials that were not batch managed before in the legacy system are now becoming batch managed in SAP. Maybe legacy was all paper-based records.

My data is highly consistent if all materials have valid values for shelf life, period indicator and rounding rule and I get no load errors when I go to load my material master via an automated program or LSMW.

My data quality might be terrible if who ever is responsible for providing the data, simply defaulted in the values of 365, D and P for the shelf life, period indicator and rounding rule respectively for all materials. Without a business person reviewing the actual material, and making sure the correct data is inputted for each material, the data quality is questionable.

Data quality issues can happen, especially in new systems and conversions, when we apply "rules" to the various conversions. Like when I might say all "T" values in a legacy value will be converted to "P" values in SAP. What is the confidence level that this rule is correct 100% of the time for all "T" values? Default rules probably have the most risk. I.e. I have no equivalent value from a legacy system to convert to an SAP value but it is a required field for SAP. Therefore, the program is written that when no value is provided in the load file, I default in a value. Maybe I default the current date, or maybe I default in 12/31/9999. Or maybe I default an indicator to "selected". What is the confidence level all these defaults are correct in all cases?