Editorial draft available to read. Factual and language review is pending. Examples are illustrative.
Decision and method
Separate alerts for freshness, completeness, duplicates and consistency. Each needs an owner, a verifiable condition and an action. Choose thresholds in relation to the affected decision; a constant warning that nobody can resolve consumes attention without improving report reliability or clarifying the underlying cause.
Illustrative example
Illustrative example: a shipping report is used at 09:00. If its expected file has not arrived by 08:45, show a pending-update warning and notify the responsible owner. Do not replace today's value with zero or present yesterday's data as though it were freshly collected today.
Acceptance check
Simulate delayed, duplicated and impossible values using test records. Verify each alert's activation, recipient and resolution. Resolution should record what changed; silencing a warning does not mean the data was corrected. Periodically review false alarms and signals left open without an accountable person or agreed next action.
Key takeaways
- A useful alert connects a specific data problem to an accountable person and a concrete action.