Found bad data in production? Use this data incident response playbook: triage, contain, trace the source, fix, verify, tell people, and review calmly.
SQL Server emergency? Email pinal@sqlauthority.com with URGENT in the subject line.
It Passed Every Test and Still Broke: Four Signals Validation Never Catches
Every test passed and the dashboard still broke. Here are four signals validation never catches: freshness, volume, schema drift, and distribution shift.
Where Should a Data Quality Check Live? Gates, Controls, and Quarantine
A check in the wrong place catches bad data too late. See where each data quality check belongs: ingestion, transformation, release gates, and quarantine.
“Clean Data” Is Not a Requirement: Writing Rules People Can Act On
Clean is a feeling, not a spec. Write data quality rules people can act on, with a testable check, a threshold, and a named owner, so every failure is owned.
Count Is Not Risk: Ranking Data Issues by What They Actually Cost
The biggest pile of errors is rarely your biggest problem. Try ranking data issues by impact and likelihood, not row count, and fix what actually hurts.
Data Quality, Data Reliability, and Data Observability: Telling the Three Apart
“The dashboard is wrong” hides three problems. Learn how data quality, data reliability, and data observability differ, and which one you are actually facing.
I Almost Did Not Publish This Book
I almost did not publish this book. Not because I doubted the ideas, but because I was not ready for anyone to see how much of it was about me, and maybe you.
SQL Server slow? Let's fix it together in about four hours.
In my Comprehensive Database Performance Health Check, you share your screen, I guide you, and we fix your biggest performance troublemakers. No passwords. No remote access.
You keep every script, and the know-how to fix it yourself next time.
Want your whole team to learn it?
My Practical Workshop has no PowerPoint, just live demos. My AI Enablement Workshop shows your team where AI saves hours, and where it quietly costs them.
Over 400 customers have worked with me this way, and not one shared a password. See all consulting options.