How can you ensure data integrity in legacy IT systems?

Data integrity is the accuracy, consistency, and reliability of data in a system. It is essential for maintaining the quality, security, and usability of data, especially in legacy IT systems that may have outdated or incompatible formats, protocols, or hardware. In this article, you will learn some practical tips on how to ensure data integrity in legacy IT systems and avoid common pitfalls that can compromise your data.

1 Assess your data sources

The first step to ensure data integrity is to assess your data sources and identify any potential issues or risks. You should evaluate the quality, validity, and relevance of your data sources, as well as their compatibility with your legacy system. You should also check for any errors, duplicates, or missing values in your data and correct them before importing or processing them. If possible, use automated tools or scripts to validate and cleanse your data sources and reduce human errors.

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Bobby Arbuthnot

Customer Experience Executive Leader | Customer Success Strategist | Organization Builder | Portfolio Leader | Board Member | LinkedIn Top Voice
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Robust data integrity begins by thoroughly auditing characteristics of inputs materializing from various legacy IT sources based on multiple technical, operational, and oversight parameters listed below. - Determine data entry points across sources - Analyze access controls/privileges - roles can change data at various points based on jobs, locations, or apps used - Catalog data modification methods - Track how inputs alter underlying records. Complex logic increases integrity risks - Review data validation rules - Assess data quality KPI history - estimate baseline integrity trends/pin high-risk origins likely needing remediation - Identify dependencies - gauge downstream impact areas when assessing source-specific risks vs enhancements

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2 Implement data standards and policies

The second step to ensure data integrity is to implement data standards and policies that define how data is collected, stored, accessed, and updated in your legacy system. You should establish clear and consistent rules and guidelines for data naming, formatting, encoding, encryption, backup, recovery, and retention. You should also document your data standards and policies and communicate them to your data users and stakeholders. By implementing data standards and policies, you can ensure that your data is consistent, secure, and compliant with your business and regulatory requirements.

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Bobby Arbuthnot

Customer Experience Executive Leader | Customer Success Strategist | Organization Builder | Portfolio Leader | Board Member | LinkedIn Top Voice
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Implementing robust standards and ongoing policy enforcement enables sustainable data integrity across the extended legacy environment. - Standardizing reference data values for commonly used attributes across systems - Freezing data model changes through governance policies - Mandating metadata tagging to enable tracking data lineage across systems - Strictly controlling write access privileges/audit trails - Enforcing input validation rules - prevent bad data entry upstream - Instating manual secondary authorization reviews before permitting changes applied to sensitive master/transactional data - Imposing documented change control procedures requiring rollback plans for major data refresh initiatives safeguarding history

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3 Use data integration and migration tools

The third step to ensure data integrity is to use data integration and migration tools that can help you transfer, transform, and synchronize data between your legacy system and other systems or platforms. Data integration and migration tools can help you overcome the challenges of data compatibility, format conversion, data mapping, and data quality. You should choose data integration and migration tools that are compatible with your legacy system and can handle large volumes of data efficiently and accurately. You should also test and verify your data integration and migration processes before and after execution.

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4 Monitor and audit your data

The fourth step to ensure data integrity is to monitor and audit your data regularly and systematically. You should use data quality metrics and indicators to measure and evaluate the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and consistency of your data. You should also use data audit tools and methods to track and record any changes, updates, or modifications to your data and identify any anomalies, errors, or breaches. By monitoring and auditing your data, you can detect and resolve any data integrity issues promptly and prevent them from affecting your business operations or decisions.

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5 Train and educate your data users

The fifth step to ensure data integrity is to train and educate your data users on how to use and handle your data properly and responsibly. You should provide your data users with the necessary skills, knowledge, and tools to access, query, analyze, and report your data in your legacy system. You should also inform your data users of your data standards and policies and the consequences of violating them. By training and educating your data users, you can foster a culture of data integrity and accountability in your organization.

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Bobby Arbuthnot

Customer Experience Executive Leader | Customer Success Strategist | Organization Builder | Portfolio Leader | Board Member | LinkedIn Top Voice
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Equipping users at all levels with context for exercising caution and upholding data hygiene is essential amid intricate user provisioning and data flow underpinning legacy systems. - Proper data entry techniques – minimize/prevent faulty inputs - Understanding data significance – Explain how information later feeds the data accuracy stakeholders depend upon - Create awareness of access risks - Change control impacts – Instill understanding of downstream dependencies/ripple effects when initiating changes with historical data for master records 5. Backup/recovery processes – Share details beyond just IT teams on the existence and verification of backups so users understand protection for business continuity 7. Define Contact escalation

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6 Update or upgrade your legacy system

The sixth step to ensure data integrity is to update or upgrade your legacy system if feasible and necessary. You should assess the performance, functionality, and security of your legacy system and compare it with the current and future needs and expectations of your business and customers. You should also evaluate the costs, benefits, and risks of updating or upgrading your legacy system versus maintaining or replacing it. By updating or upgrading your legacy system, you can improve its compatibility, efficiency, and reliability and enhance your data integrity and quality.

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7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How can you ensure data integrity in legacy IT systems?

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1 Assess your data sources

2 Implement data standards and policies

3 Use data integration and migration tools

4 Monitor and audit your data

5 Train and educate your data users

6 Update or upgrade your legacy system

7 Here’s what else to consider

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