| "To err is human. To forgive is divine" Alexander Pope People make mistakes. So you need good processes to detect and prevent these from happening. I send and receive data all day long at work. I've developed a number of processes to check my data for errors. There is one problem with checking your own data and that is a famous QA or quality assurance problem of testing your own work. For some reason, it's much harder to check your own work than to check someone else's work. Develop checklists to follow. Check the data you're receiving and check the reports or data you send out. Automate the checking of data you send out. Comparison Report I have a process that can compare two files to see what's different about them. This process looks for the total number of rows, values, and other statistics to help determine if the data I'm sending or receiving is correct. Have someone else check your data Due to the issue of testing your own data, you should always have a second person look for issues or problems. It also helps for the evidence of the testing and sign-off of the checklist to make sure people do their job. Today, I updated a report and checked the data. There was an issue that I detected only because I run an automated process that can check two files for consistency. I found an issue that I was able to correct it. It's always better to find your own issues than for someone else to find them. Emails/IMs Check your emails/IMs for typos before pressing the send key. The more people and the higher level of the recipient, the more time you should spend. Print and read it to find errors. You can also get your computer to read it to you to help find errors. |