5 Top Data Quality Assurance Challenges Facing Defence IT

Data quality assurance is incredibly important for ensuring the efficiency, reliability, and effectiveness of defence IT operations. Having inaccurate or poor-quality data could negatively impact military operations and decision-making. Split second decisions in military operations can result in life or death. Hence, having accurate and reliable data is extremely important.

Without proper data management, databases can quickly become redundant. So here are five common challenges that the defence industry is currently facing with the quality and maintenance of their data.

Data Quality Assurance Challenges Faced in Defence IT

Data Silos

Quite simply, a data silo is a large conglomerate of data held by a single group or party that isn’t easily accessible to others in the same organisation. These siloes are typically created unintentionally, they tend to naturally appear as an organisation grows. They can quickly become problematic as they grow in size because the data can not be properly utilised.

Defence organisations heavily rely on accurate high-quality data when making informed decisions about potential threats. When data and information are not accessible, strategies and decisions aren’t able to be made with all the available data resulting in potentially flawed decision-making. This puts the military organisation at a significant disadvantage when making vital decisions.

Inconsistent Data Formats

Data inconsistency is when the same data exists in separate locations but is stored in different formats. This causes the data to become unreliable and difficult to properly decipher. This occurs when an organisation is broken into multiple parts, with individuals in each department who treat and interpret data in different ways.

So, it is necessary to classify the data and to do so, one must utilise different tools and models. For example, to develop the ‘Natural language Processing classification’ model, KJR used the AWS technology stack within one of their phases. 

However, exchanging data seamlessly, efficiently, and effectively becomes very difficult without data consistency. In order to combat these challenges, defence organisations should implement standardised practices on how different data should be formatted. This way data can be consistent across all databases.

Data Duplication

Data duplication happens when a piece of data has a copy made of it, creating two pieces of the same data. This creates a database filled with redundant data that can be utilised by the organisation. Duplicate data will take up large amounts of storage space available in a database, this ends up costing you more money and will give you redundant data.

Data duplication can occur as a result of user input error, where an individual may mistakenly enter a data entry more than once, it may also occur from data backups.

Without a proper response or plan to combat data duplication, defence organisations may experience large portions of redundant and inaccurate information available to personnel. 

Data deduplication is a common method of removing duplicate content by eliminating copies of the data, helping to clear storage space within the database. Using this method, KJR is able to fix large defence databases filled with duplicate data.

Inaccurate Data

The accuracy of data is highly important, without real reliable data it can be difficult to make informed decisions about defence operations. Without standardising data practices and entry, it can be very easy for data to become inaccurate and unreliable.

In a defence force environment, inaccurate data could alter major decisions regarding their hardware and backup, having big consequences. This is why it’s vital to keep your data as accurate as possible through good data management.

Outdated Data

Over time data can begin to rot or become outdated, meaning it’s no longer relevant, reliable, and is now redundant. This is typically caused by poor data management, data hoarding, or a change in data standards.

Data requires constant maintenance and regulation to ensure it remains relevant and up to date. Outdated data can result in wrongful decision-making and significantly impact defence IT systems and security. KJR fixes this by setting up policies and standardisations of data entry, as well as using methods to remove redundant data.

Key Takeaways

Poor data management without proper data quality practices can lead to redundant data, potentially negatively impacting combat operations, logistics, system development, and most importantly people’s lives.

If you are looking to ensure your data is high-quality, relevant, and reliable then contact KJR today to discuss how we can help you. For 25 years we have been leading in software quality assurance and risk management for defence IT.