Whether you are a data analyst, engineer, or architect, assessing the 6 V’s of your data can be key in creating an output that is performant, maintainable and delivers the desired business value be that a dashboard, data pipeline or architectural solution.
Volume – Knowing how big your dataset is and whether it will grow over time
Velocity – How fast will data be accumulated and is there a requirement for real time insights or is a delay tolerable. This informs your data ingest and storage processes.
Variety – Knowing if your data sources contain structured, unstructured, or semi-structured is important when making your technology choices.
Veracity – Understanding your data source, level of trust and inconsistencies/uncertainties in data is vital in qualifying your analytics output.
Variability – How does the structure of your data change over time? Or does the meaning or shape of your data change? Data systems need to be maintained and reviewed and iterated in response to variability.
Value –Understanding the value of the data to the business will help you decide how to process and treat it in the data ecosystem. There is often the urge to be data hungry and absorb any data you come across, but there will always be some data that cannot be converted into something of value, so why incur the cost and time effort of absorbing it.