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Data Governance

Data quality rule

In a nutshell

A condition that data must meet to be considered good, written so it can be checked automatically.

A data quality rule turns an expectation into something checkable. For example: “every active customer has a validly formatted email” or “the delivery date is not earlier than the order date”.

A good rule has five parts: the data it applies to, the dimension it measures, the condition, the acceptable threshold and the owner who acts if it fails.

It is best to write them after data profiling, so they are realistic.

Read more: The 6 data quality dimensions with examples and our complete data quality guide.

Reference: DAMA-DMBOK

Related terms

Data quality thresholdValidity (data quality)Data profiling
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← Back to the glossaryUpdated: October 2026 · Informational content, not legal advice.