If you work in the world of information or data management, in particular the field of data quality management, one of the obvious career goals is to become a "Head of Data Quality" or similar role.

In the first of a planned series we interview data quality professionals and discover what it took to get there and the skills they had to draw upon to fulfill their role.

Interview with Wayne Wiggins: Head of Information Quality at RBS, Royal Bank of Scotland Group.

DQP: Describe your personal journey leading to Head of Information Quality at RBS?

WW: I started out in accountancy and internal audit where it became apparent that to understand the numbers and have confidence in their integrity it was vital to have a good understanding of the underlying source data and the processes the data went through before it was reported on.

When I moved into Banking this became even more vital. I started working on a major implementation of SAP’s R/3 general ledger system, setting up reference data and converting projects from the legacy systems to SAP. I then moved into a project team where I took responsibility for data conversion on a global SAP rollout.

After a couple of years of running data conversions I progressed to implementation and project manager with responsibility for teams responsible for data conversion, testing, implementation and the initial business analysis legacy systems and businesses and the design of the target solutions.

As I progressed in project management I ran a programme office for a SAP business warehouse programme for two internal clients. When the programme manager took early retirement I was offered the opportunity to become the programme manager and take direct responsibility of a sizeable budget for the first time and to be the stakeholder manager.

When that programme had delivered I started to investigate the systems impact of the Basel II accord.

The Basel II accord placed huge emphasis on developing systems and models and on the integrity of the data. At that time the whole regulatory world was changing for the Banking sector. New legislation was being drafted, not just Basel II but Sarbanes Oxley, International Accounting Standards and MiFID. The finance world was waking up to a world of increasing scrutiny of their data and an unprecedented level of change to the systems used to run the business.

The Basel II accord introduced explicit requirements to monitor, improve and report on the data quality used to run the business.

I then moved to a centrally run Basel II programme to project manage the reconciliation and data quality work stream. Within a short period of time I became quite knowledgeable in this area thanks to some support from an early mentor at Deloitte at the time.My deep knowledge of the bank systems and data combined with a finance background on a project predominantly run by risk professionals was in high demand.

It did not take long for the recruitment industry to become aware of me as people moved around projects frequently. I had always had a good relationship with recruiters as I viewed them as valuable partners to the business and built a network of trusted contacts.

It was not unusual to get job specs and phone calls about new exciting roles almost every day throughout 2005 – 2007 and eventually I decided to make the move to freelance contracting work and moved onto a new bank with similar issues.

In early 2007 I was ready for something new and an exploratory meeting led to a job offer for a “green field” project to set up and run a data quality team for Basel II compliance.

I guess a character trait of mine is to talk to anyone and everyone in the organisation that was interested in data quality and I regularly preached the benefits and importance of data quality.

I also like to put forward solutions rather than sit on the fence.

I don’t always have the answers but when you put forward a solution it draws out debate and other ideas and helps move towards the right solution much more quickly.

DQP: Describe your current role, what kind of activities are you responsible for?

WW: I oversee the many data quality initiatives at RBS that relate to improving data quality for all risk and finance data.

I provide the governance and oversight, manage the reporting and escalation of issues to the executive management. I also maintain and run the governance committee that tracks progress and allocates funding and prioritises the work stack.

I don’t line manage the people or manage the individual projects/programmes.

I would describe my role as having four key parts:

• The catalyst to get projects started and ensure they deliver by raising awareness, clearing road blocks and articulating the benefits, opportunities and risks of projects to the executives
• Subject matter expert, keeping up to speed with thought leadership, product developments and industry trends and communicating them back to clients
• Roving consultant/investigator to get under the skin of the problems or to identify opportunities, bring people together to share tools and techniques
• Oversight & governance – sitting on the project control committees and steering groups to monitor and understand the progress and issues, ensure good governance and communicate progress

• An inquisitive mind
• An interest in the detail
• Technical skills MS Office, databases, specialist software
• Build your network as wide as possible
• Keep a black book of skills you see others use and influential people you meet
• Surprise people with what you know and what you can do
• Create a reputation for finding solutions and delivering them
• Be proactive in offering support and solutions
• Be able to see the bigger picture
• Keep up to date on industry issues
• Stay long enough in an organisation to be remembered but not long enough to become forgotten
• Seize the opportunities that come along and don’t be afraid to create opportunities as well

Wayne is an active member of Data Quality Pro and our Expert Panel (see Wayne's profile).

We will be publishing further interviews with other senior data quality professionals over the coming weeks, subscribe to our RSS feed for further updates: Data Quality Pro Journal RSS.

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