Data Quality Application Overview¶
Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation
For instructions on accessing the Data Quality features, see Access the Data Quality Features
The Alation Data Quality application provides a comprehensive, actionable view of the overall health of your data assets. Navigation is driven by the left-hand menu, which categorizes features into the following areas:
Overview¶
The Overview section serves as the primary landing page for the Alation Data Quality application. It is designed to immediately surface data quality issues, active incidents, and monitoring coverage across your catalog so you can prioritize remediation.
The overview dashboard displays the following components:
Overall Health Indicator¶
At the top of the Overview page, a central indicator displays the immediate health of your data environment. This indicator dynamically updates based on the status of your configured monitors:
Needs Attention: If there are check failures or errors, the indicator displays a red alert icon and specifies the exact number of monitors requiring your attention (e.g., “396 monitors need attention”).
Healthy: If all active monitors are passing without issues, the indicator displays a green checkmark with the message “All systems healthy.”
Summary Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Cards¶
Directly below the health indicator are three summary cards that provide a quick pulse on your data quality operations:
Monitors: Displays the total number of monitors currently experiencing issues, alongside the number of monitors successfully passing.
Incidents: Displays the count of active, ongoing incidents versus closed incidents.
Coverage: Shows the percentage and exact count of recommended tables that are currently being monitored out of the total applicable tables in your catalog.
Monitors With Issues¶
The Monitors With Issues section provides a streamlined list of monitors that have one or more failed or errored checks in their latest run.
You can filter these monitors using the dynamic category tabs located just below the summary KPI cards. These tabs are automatically generated based on the categorization of the data assets currently being monitored in your environment (for example, business domains like Operations, Customer, Product, or Master Data Entities).
Selecting a tab filters the list to only show failing monitors affecting assets within that specific category. The list includes the following information:
Column Name |
Description |
|---|---|
Priority/Tag |
The assigned criticality level (e.g., Critical) |
Monitor Name |
The name of the monitor experiencing the issue |
Issue Summary |
Number of failing or errored checks |
Status |
Result of the latest monitor run |
Action |
A View button to investigate the monitor details |
View All Monitors¶
The monitors dashboard provides access to a comprehensive monitor administration with a searchable and filterable view. At the beginning, you can view the total assets monitored such as table, column, and BI reports.
Navigate to the Alation Data Quality application and click Monitors.
Filter monitors by Status using the dropdown to view All Monitors or only Monitors with Failures.
(Optional) Search by a monitor name, failure count, or last execution time.
To understand which monitors require the most attention, review the following options for each monitor:
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
Monitor Name |
A unique name identifying the monitor. |
Tables Monitored |
The number of tables included in the monitor. |
Checks Count |
Total number of checks configured in the monitor. |
Checks Failed |
Number of checks that failed in the most recent run. |
Status |
Overall status based on check failures such as pass or fail. |
Last Run / Next Run |
Timestamps of the previous and upcoming scheduled monitor executions |
Created By |
The user who created the monitor or SDK if the monitor is of SDK type. |
Results generated by SDK-Enabled Monitors are ingested seamlessly via API and appear in the dashboard alongside your standard manual monitors. This provides a unified view of health across your entire data landscape, regardless of whether checks were run by Alation or an external pipeline. The dashboard retains full result fidelity for SDK runs, including:
Pass, fail, error, or partial status for all checks.
Execution metadata and error logs.
Summaries and actionable recommendations for failed checks.
For more information, see Manage Monitors.
View All Assets¶
The assets dashboard provides a centralized view of all data assets currently under quality monitoring.
Navigate to the Alation Data Quality application and click Assets.
Search for specific tables using names or by number of failed checks.
To understand which assets require the most attention, review the following options for table:
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
Table |
Name and source path of the monitored table |
Columns Monitored |
Number of columns in the table with at least one data quality check |
Monitors (Count) |
Number of different monitors the table is part of |
Checks (Count) |
Total number of checks applied to this table across all monitors |
View Details |
Link to access full table detail page with check results, history, and configuration |
Click View Details to get detailed information about the object names, the type of checks applied, the check definition, observed values against each check, status, their last runtime, and status messages.
View All Incidents¶
The incident dashboard allows you to track incident status, priority, and resolution, with built-in links to external ticketing systems like Atlassian Jira.
Navigate to the Alation Data Quality application and click Incidents.
Filter incidents by their status using the dropdown to view Show All, Open Incidents, or Closed Incidents.
To triage incidents, review the following details:
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
Incident Name |
A unique, brief title or identifier for the data quality incident. |
Description |
A brief summary providing more context about the incident or the data issue. |
Status |
The current stage of the incident in the resolution workflow (e.g., “Open,” “Resolved,” “Waiting For Triage”). |
Priority |
The assigned urgency level to help prioritize work (e.g., “Critical,” “High,” “Minor”). |
Date Created |
The timestamp indicates when the incident was first created or detected. |
Days Open |
A calculated number of days the incident has been active (since “Date Created”) to track its age. |
Ticket Link |
A direct link to an associated ticket in an external system, such as Jira, for issue tracking. |
Link to Monitor |
A direct link to the specific data quality monitor that triggered this incident. |
Click on an incident name to view details about it.
For more information, see Manage Incidents.
Approval Requests¶
The Approval Requests page provides a centralized workflow for reviewing and approving changes to data quality monitors, ensuring governance and oversight.
Navigate to the Alation Data Quality application and click Approval Requests.
Use the toggles at the top-right to filter between Needs My Review and All Requests.
Review the top-level KPI metrics to quickly see the number of items Pending Review versus Changes Requested.
The requests list provides the following information:
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
Request |
The name or title of the monitor being modified. |
Type |
The nature of the request (e.g., Create Monitor, Update Monitor, Delete Monitor). |
Requester |
The user who submitted the request, along with the timestamp of submission. |
Request Status |
The current state of the workflow (e.g., Approved, Closed, Pending Review). |
Approvers |
The users or groups designated to approve the request. |
Action |
Click the Review button to view the specific details of the request and take action. |
Data Quality Standards¶
The Standards page serves as a library for reusable data quality rules. Standards allow you to define a check once and apply it across multiple monitors, ensuring consistent validation logic across your organization.
Navigate to the Alation Data Quality application and click Standards.
Filter the standards library by data quality dimension using the pill toggles (e.g., Completeness, Accuracy, Validity, Uniqueness, Timeliness).
The dashboard displays the Total Standards available and the Total Monitors currently utilizing them.
- Each standard is displayed as a card containing:
The name of the standard and its assigned dimension type.
A brief description of the validation rule.
The number of monitors currently applying the standard.
The name of the user who authored it and the last updated date.
Click Apply Standard to attach an existing rule to a monitor, or click New Standard to define a new organizational rule.
Settings¶
The Settings page is restricted to administrators and provides global configuration options for the Alation Data Quality application.
Navigate to the Alation Data Quality application and click Settings. The left navigation within the settings page allows you to configure the following areas:
Feature Flags: Toggle global application capabilities on or off, such as Data Profiling, Data Sampling, CSV Export, and AI-Powered Check Recommendations.
Check Rec. Skills: Manage the instruction sets that guide the AI when it generates check recommendations for your specific datasets.
Role Permissions: Define user access levels and capabilities within the Data Quality application.
Approval Flow: Configure the multi-step review processes required for monitor creation or modification.
Webhook Configuration: Set up external integrations for automated alerting and incident creation.