{"id":3208,"date":"2025-03-31T19:04:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T19:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/castco.wpenginepowered.com\/?post_type=ht_kb&#038;p=3208"},"modified":"2025-03-31T19:05:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T19:05:53","slug":"data-quality-and-validation","status":"publish","type":"ht_kb","link":"https:\/\/castco.org\/knowledge-base\/data-quality-and-validation\/","title":{"rendered":"Data quality and validation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>One of the most critical aspects of building trust in data quality is abiding by pre-defined ways of collecting and sharing data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Certification\/accreditation and associated definitions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Best Practice:<\/strong> An agreed way of doing something.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Standard method:<\/strong> An agreed method of doing something; bringing together expertise of wide range of users and end users to establish a best practice method\/approach to doing something.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Compliance:<\/strong> The act of following a method or process<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Quality Assurance: <\/strong>Assessing the whole method or process to prevent any errors or mistakes<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Quality Control: <\/strong>Assessing the possible errors and mistakes within a process or method.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\"><strong>Accreditation\/Certification:<\/strong>\u00a0Official recognition of individuals&#8217; or organisations&#8217; compliance to a standard method.<\/span> This can range from local certification following training e.g. <a href=\"https:\/\/castco.org\/knowledge-base\/riverfly\/\">ARMI<\/a> to professional level accreditation process against a national\/international standard (BSI, CEN, ISO) used by the Environment Agency and water company labs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Quality Assurance (QA) versus Quality Control (QC)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Quality Assurance (QA)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Quality Assurance (QA) is a &#8216;proactive process&#8217; that assesses the whole method or process to prevent any errors or mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Focus is on the prevention of mistakes and errors<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Process-based approach<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Manages quality<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sampling example<\/strong>: a QA process would be calibrating your <a href=\"https:\/\/castco.org\/knowledge-base\/hanna-checker-phosphate-low-range\/\">Hanna checker to test for phosphates<\/a> using a sample blank to &#8216;zero&#8217; your sample between each sample.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Data example:<\/strong> a QA process would only allow a volunteer to enter readings within the possible range. The user could not enter a pH above 14 or a phosphorus reading above the detection limit of their equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Quality Control (QC) <\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Quality Control (QC) is a &#8216;reactive process&#8217; that assesses the possible errors and mistakes within a process or method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Focus on the identification of mistakes and errors<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Product-based approach<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Verifies the quality<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sampling example<\/strong>: a QC process would be if you noticed a volunteer was always recording a zero value on their <a href=\"https:\/\/castco.org\/knowledge-base\/kyoritsu-packtest-phosphate-low-range\/\">Kyoritsu tests for phosphate-phosphorus<\/a> and so you meet with them to ensure they&#8217;re doing the test correctly. You then replace equipment as it appears sample tubes are out of date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Data example:<\/strong> a QC process in water monitoring would be to have an expert review results to check for results that don&#8217;t make sense for a specific waterbody. They may catch an error, such as the reading for phosphorus being recorded where the pH would be recorded, or note that results are in the wrong units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most critical aspects of building trust in data quality is abiding by pre-defined ways of collecting and sharing data. Certification\/accreditation and associated&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"ht-kb-category":[23],"ht-kb-tag":[],"class_list":["post-3208","ht_kb","type-ht_kb","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","ht_kb_category-data"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Data quality and validation - CastCo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/castco.org\/knowledge-base\/data-quality-and-validation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Data quality and validation - CastCo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the most critical aspects of building trust in data quality is abiding by pre-defined ways of collecting and sharing data. 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