Review pairs of records to train the IBM Match 360 matching algorithm how to decide which records get matched into master data entities. During a pair review, a data steward user compares records to determine whether they are a match.

Required permissions

To complete a pair review task, you must be a member of the DataSteward user group for the IBM Match 360 service.

When a pair review is complete, IBM Match 360 analyzes the responses and recommends adjustments to your matching algorithm's weights and matching thresholds. The more pairs you review, the better the tuning recommendations will be. A data engineer can then decide whether to apply the recommendations.

Before you can complete a pair review, a data engineer must have requested a review. Each request tells IBM Match 360 to generate pairs and create a new pair review task. For information about requesting a pair review, see Customizing and strengthening your matching algorithm.

When you are working with governed data on the pair review screens, some attribute values might be masked by a data protection rule. For more information about how IBM Match 360 handles governed catalogs, see Working with governed data in IBM Match 360.

To complete a pair review task:

1. From the Master data navigation menu, click the Pair review icon . At any one time, there can only be one active pair review task for each entity type. If your data set includes more than one entity type, then there might be more than one pair review task in your queue.

2. When there is an active pair review task, you can see an overview of it on the main panel. Click Review pairs to get started or continue an in-progress review.

3. For each pair of records, compare the attribute values to determine whether the two records refer to the same entity, then choose the best option:

   • Match
   • Unsure
   • Not a match

4. Click Next to move to the next pair.

   Tip: At any time, you can pause the review by clicking Pause review. Return to where you left off by clicking Review pairs again.

   After you have reviewed and categorized all of the pairs in the review, you'll be shown a message thanking you for your efforts.

5. Click Complete review to close the review. IBM Match 360 uses your responses to generate tuning recommendations and then sends them to the data engineer.