Community Champion
Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
I know we’d all like to rely on our PowerBI or Tableau reports, or whatever data source you use for tracking business metrics, but those reports are only as good as the data that goes into them.
That goes for our project management tools as well. If you’re looking at a resource chart trying to work out how to manage capacity over the coming weeks, you’d better be looking at the right inputs. When the underlying data is wrong, it can throw off your scheduling.
But why is data wrong in the first place? No one goes into work and knowingly types in incorrect figures just to make your day difficult. If you’re worried about the integrity of the data, or you want to do an audit check, or even just highlight the importance of getting it right to your team, here are some places you can look.
Human error
Let’s start with the most obvious: Incorrect data input by project team members can lead to inaccuracies in schedules, budgets, and resource allocation. Manual errors in data processing causes more headaches, in my opinion, than anything else.
While we’re on the topic of how humans type things in, let’s talk about inconsistent data formatting. Without standardised data entry methods, inconsistencies such as different date formats or unit measurements can impact data integrity.
Software Errors
How much downtime does your project management tool, or any other data repository that you use, have? How often do you have to raise tickets?
I heard about one team who had been successfully navigating around a bug in the system they used, and talked about how they were managing as if it was a badge of honour – don’t do that! Raise a ticket with the right support team and get it fixed. You never know what kind of impact a bug is having behind the scenes.
Even the best project management software may experience a glitch from time to time that could mean you lose data or it gets corrupted. This can happen when you are syncing data or updating project information, for example importing a spreadsheet from one system to another.
Sometimes we also see issues where multiple users are trying to access or modify the same document or data set where version control hasn't been used. That gives you multiple versions of the same information and no one knows which is the correct one.
External factors
Sometimes it's factors beyond your control that cause problems with data. If you have a network failure, for example, and you're in the middle of doing a data sync, that might affect the inputs. Even hardware failures, the blue screen of death, or losing a USB stick can cause problems (not that you store anything on external drives, right?).
Data integration
In my experience, one of the biggest issues with making sure your data is correct across all systems is how the interfaces work. If you are building interfaces between various systems you have to make sure that the testing is adequate. Whether you are integrating your project management software with financial planning software or a resource management tool or whether you are taking project data out of a scheduling system and putting it somewhere else, it has to be accurate.
Another issue is where the data is being exported from one system in one format and needs to be in a different format for another system —this is particularly relevant with dates.
Identify which system is the single source of the truth and make sure the integrity of that is maintained.
What other issues do you have with data integrity and how do you get round them?
Posted on: December 05, 2025 12:00 AM |
Permalink