Information System Data Quality Triage

Information System Management becomes more concrete when students can decide which data problems deserve immediate attention and which ones should be scheduled for later improvement. A duplicate student record, an outdated room list, and a missing approval timestamp may all be defects, but they do not carry the same operational risk.

This triage worksheet asks students to evaluate data quality through evidence, ownership, and service impact. The goal is to build judgement rather than simply produce a long list of corrections.

Triage dimensions

Ask each group to score a data issue using four classroom-friendly dimensions:

• Service impact: Which student, lecturer, or administrator workflow is affected?
• Evidence strength: What report, log, ticket, or user observation proves the issue exists?
• Ownership clarity: Which role can approve the correction and prevent recurrence?
• Remediation safety: Can the fix be applied without creating new data loss or policy conflict?

Students should explain their score in plain language so the triage decision is auditable.

Classroom scenario

Give students a small set of campus data incidents: duplicate enrolments, missing adviser assignments, inconsistent course codes, or a payment status that does not match the finance system. Each group chooses the top two issues to fix first and writes a short justification for delaying the others.

Learning outcome

Students learn that data quality is a management discipline, not only a database-cleaning task. Good triage connects technical evidence with service priorities, accountable owners, and safe change control.