The Catalog Quality functionality provides users an at‑a‑glance understanding of the health of their data, showing where rules are passing or failing and how those results are trending. This information supports confident decision‑making, helps identify the areas that pose the greatest risk, and enables stewards to focus remediation efforts where they will have the most impact.
What is a Quality Path
A Quality Path is a term used to describe how data quality results flow from rule‑based Object Types to other Object Types in the Catalog. It determines which objects are evaluated and where results appear.
There are two types of Quality Path that can be used:
- A Direct Path is where a rule-based Object Type is directly linked to another Object Type.
- An Indirect Path is where a rule-based Object Type is linked to a target Object Type via an intermediate Object Type.
Set up and configuration
Direct Path
A Direct Path configuration uses an explicit link from any rule-based Object Type to any other Object Type that will display Quality results - this object is typically referred to as a Business Process.
To set up Quality via a Direct Path:
- Create an Object Type that will be used to display the Quality tab; this Object Type represents the Business Process.
- Add an association from a rule‑based Object Type to the Business Process Object Type.
This association can originate from:
- a Ruleset, or
- a Rule Group, or
- an individual Rule
- Edit the Business Process Object Type and
- Set Include "Quality" tab → On
- Set Include impact detail? → No
- Create a Business Process object
- Link it to the relevant rule‑based object
Indirect Path
With an Indirect Path configuration, the Business Process Object Type is not linked directly to rule logic. Instead, an intermediary - typically referred to as a Process Impact object - sits between the two. The Process Impact links Business Processes to specific Rules, Rule Groups, or Rulesets.
When Quality results are generated, they are displayed on the target Business Process object's Quality tab and are grouped according to the impacts defined on the associated Process Impact object.
A Process Impact connects a Business Process to the rules that affect it, so you can see data quality results grouped by meaningful business impacts - for example “Critical” or “Increased Operational Cost.”
To set up Quality via an Indirect Path:
- Create an Object Type for the Business Process that will be used to display the Quality tab
- Create an Object Type that will be used as the Process Impact
- Add a string field to contain an Impact description or Criticality category
- Configure the required Associations in order for the Quality engine to follow the required Quality Path
- Create an association from the Process Impact Object Type to the Business Process Object Type
- Create an association from the Process Impact to any rule-based Object Type
- Once the Object Types have been created, edit the Business Process Object Type and
- Set Include "Quality" tab → On
- Set Include impact detail? → Yes
- From the Object Type containing impact drop down choose the association that connects the Business Process to the Process Impact Object Type
- Select the Impact field
- Create Objects for the Object Types
- Create one or more Process Impact objects
- Create a Business Process object
- Link the Process Impact to a rule-based object and a Business Process object
Optional Quality Tab Configuration
Optionally add a numeric field - typically named Weight or Cost per Failure - to the Business Process Object Type. This value can be used to calculate an overall failure‑cost metric, allowing the Quality tab to provide more meaningful impact scoring.
When editing the Quality tab configuration for a Business Process Object Type, it is possible to additionally configure the following optional settings:
- Add a Value label which is free form text intended to appear before the Weight value
- For example, "Estimated cost of failure: £"
- Select a Weight field – choose the numeric field (e.g., Weight or Cost per Failure) that should be used to calculate impact‑based scoring on the Quality tab
Generate the Quality Results
For both Direct and Indirect Paths, Quality results appear only after running an Aperture Data Studio validation Workflow.
To generate results:
- Ensure relevant ruleset is enabled and governed by the Catalog
- Ensure the relevant rule objects are associated with the correct Business Process or Process Impacts
- Create or edit an Aperture Data Studio Workflow to include a Validate step that applies the Catalog governed Ruleset
- In the Validate step, enable:
- Send results to Catalog option
- Run the Workflow.
Once the Workflow completes, validation results will populate the Quality tab of the relevant Business Process object.
