Data quality is an important element in data management; it is a larger topic by itself. If you are looking for a book on data quality, don’t look further. Get a copy of Data Quality: The Accuracy Dimension (Morgan Kaufmann; 1st Edition, 2003).
This book is about data accuracy, divided into three parts – Part 1 Understanding Data Accuracy: defines inaccurate data, shows the scope of problems that exists in the real world, and covers how data becomes inaccurate. Part 2 Implementing a Data Quality Assurance Program: covers how data quality assurance program is constructed with the inside-out approach, and covers the methodology used, the skills needed, and the general business cases. Part 3 Data Profiling Technology: focuses on the technology of data profiling. It describes the basic concept of technology and shows how individual parts contribute to overall result.
The author has explained the concepts, techniques, and the framework required to analyze and improve usefulness of the source data. It is a must read, if you are a professional working in the field of data quality, data integration, data architecture, or data warehousing. Many books are out there in the market on the similar subject, but this one is easy to study and does provide a new ground in 300 pages.
You can preview this book at Google Books.
Overall, this is a very good book. I wish I would have read it several years ago!