If data in a data warehouse is nonquality, the warehouse will fail. Data cleansing and correction are, simply put, part of the costs of nonquality data. Every hour consumed and dollar spent correcting data is an hour or dollar that cannot be spent doing something that adds value. Information quality is quality data produced at the source. Information quality improvement databases are designed properly and the processes are defined and operating properly.
Information quality improves processes to prevent defective data from being created.
Data cleansing attacks the symptoms of a problem. It fixes the results of faulty processes. Information quality attacks the root causes of data defects and eliminates the causes of nonquality information. It will transform itself from an information scrap and rework function to a function that facilitates data defect prevention. When a domain is associated with an attribute, the attribute takes on all of the characteristics of that domain.