Data Fit-for-Purpose

Definition:

Data that is of sufficient quality for its intended use through the perspective of the business process that is using it.

Commentary:

One aspect of data fit-for-use is that the data is of sufficient quality to achieve the desired outcome from using the data. Some instances, such as trend data, can achieve the desired outcome from relatively low-quality data. However, fit-for-purpose goes beyond validating an appropriate quality level to determine that the data is the correct data for the data consumer’s intended use. Data may be determined to be 100% quality across a range of quality dimensions, but the quality level is irrelevant if it is the wrong data for the intended use. The best practice is for the data producer and data consumer to agree to the criteria for fit-for-purpose use of the data. The criteria are often recorded in a data-sharing agreement and captured as metadata.