data governance

Are Data Preparation Tools Changing Data Governance?

by

First there was Hadoop. Then there were data scientists. Then came Agile BI on big data. Drum roll, please . . . bum, bum, bum, bum . . .

Now we have data preparation!

If you are as passionate about data quality and governance and I am, then the 5+-year wait for a scalable capability to take on data trust is amazingly validating. The era for “good enough” when it comes to big data is giving way to an understanding that the way analysts have gotten away with “good enough” was through a significant amount of manual data wrangling. As an analyst, it must have felt like your parents saying you can’t see your friends and play outside until you cleaned your room (and if it’s anything like my kids’ rooms, that’s a tall order).

There is no denying that analysts are the first to benefit from data preparation tools such as Altyrex, Paxata, and Trifacta. It’s a matter of time to value for insight. What is still unrecognized in the broader data management and governance strategy is that these early forays are laying the foundation for data citizenry and the cultural shift toward a truly data-driven organization.

Today’s data reality is that consumers of data are like any other consumers; they want to shop for what they need. This data consumer journey begins by looking in their own spreadsheets, databases, and warehouses. When they can’t find what they want there, data consumers turn to external sources such as partners, third parties, and the Web. Their tool to define the value of data, and ultimately if they will procure it and possibly pay for it, is what data preparation tools help with. The other outcome of this data-shopping experience is that they are taking on the risk and accountability for the value of the data as it is introduced into analysis, decision-making, and automation.

Read more

Data Governance and Data Management Are Not Interchangeable

by

Since when did data management and data governance become interchangeable?
This is a question that has both confounded and frustrated me. The pursuit of data management vendors to connect with business stakeholders, because of the increasing role busi…

Let’s Break All The Data Rules!

by

When I think about data, I can’t help but think about hockey. As a passionate hockey mom, it’s hard to separate my conversations about data all week with clients from the practices and games I sit through, screaming encouragement to my son and his team (sometimes to the embarrassment of my husband!). So when I recently saw a documentary on the building of the Russian hockey team that our miracle US hockey team beat at the 1980 Olympics, the story of Anatoli Tarsov stuck with me.

Before the 1960s, Russia didn’t have a hockey team. Then the Communist party determined that it was critical that Russia build one — and compete on the world stage. They selected Anatoli Tarsov to build the team and coach. He couldn’t see films on hockey. He couldn’t watch teams play. There was no reference on how to play the game. And yet, he built a world-class hockey club that not only beat the great Nordic teams but went on to crush the Canadian teams that were the standard for hockey excellence.

This is a lesson for us all when it comes to data. Do we stick with our standards and recipes from Inmon and Kimball? Do we follow check-box assessments from CMMI, DM-BOK, or TOGAF’s information architecture framework? Do we rely on governance compliance to police our data?

Or do we break the rules and create our own that are based on outcomes and results? This might be the scarier path. This might be the riskier path. But do you want data to be where your business needs it, or do you want to predefine, constrain, and bias the insight?

Read more

Is Zombie Data Taking Over?

by

It is easy to get ahead of ourselves with all the innovation happening with data and analytics. I wouldn’t call it hype, as that would imply no value or competency has been achieved. But I would say that what is bright, shiny, and new is always more interesting than the ordinary.

And, to be frank, there is still a lot of ordinary in our data management world.

In fact, over the past couple of weeks, discussions with companies have uncommonly focused on the ordinary. This in some ways appeared to be unusual because questions focused on the basic foundational aspects of data management and governance — and for companies that I have seen talk publicly about their data management successes.

“Where do I clean the data?”

“How do I get the business to invest in data?”

“How do I get a single customer view of my customer for marketing?”

What this tells me is that companies are under siege by zombie data.

Data is living in our business under outdated data policies and rules. Data processes and systems are persisting single-purpose data. As data pros turn over application rocks and navigate through the database bogs to centralize data for analytics and virtualize views for new data capabilities, zombie data is lurching out to consume more of the environment, blocking other potential insight to keep the status quo.

The questions you and your data professional cohorts are asking, as illustrated above, are anything but basic. The fact that these foundational building blocks have to be assessed once again demonstrates that organizations are on a path to crush the zombie data siege, democratize data and insight, and advance the business.

Keep asking basic questions — if you aren’t, zombie data will eventually take over, and you and your organization will become part of the walking dead.

To defend your business from zombie data, read:

Read more

Questions for the Upcoming Big Data Security Tweet Jam on Jan. 22

by

Last week, we announced our upcoming tweet jam on Tuesday, January 22 at 9:00 a.m. PT/12:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. BST, which will examine the impact of Big Data on security and how it will change the security landscape. The discussion will be guided by these six questions… Continue reading →

Data Governance: A Fundamental Aspect of IT

by

Underlying both SOA governance and Cloud governance is a fundamental aspect that we have been dealing with ever since the dawn of IT—and that’s the data itself. Let us challenge ourselves with a few questions. Consider them the what, why, when, where, who and how of data governance. Continue reading →

The Open Group SOA Governance Framework Becomes an International Standard

by

The Open Group SOA Governance Framework is now an International Standard, having passed its six month ratification vote in ISO and IEC. According to Gartner, effective governance is a key success factor for Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions today and in the future. Continue reading →

PODCAST: Why data and information management remain elusive after decades of deployments; and how to fix it

by

Listen to our recorded podcast on the state of data and information management strategies, or read the transcript. This podcast was recorded by Dana Gardner of Interarbor Solutions in conjunction with The Open Group Conference, Austin 2011. Continue re…