In the Field with our Experts

The Project Manager as News Reporter

By Stephen Putman, Senior Consultant

photo by rabbleradio

I recently read a post on the PM Blog relating to Data Integration Management Processes. In the post, the author details the seven steps in the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide relating to a Data Integration project for completion of a project. The steps are pretty much what you would expect-- develop a project charter and scope, develop the project plan, implement change control, etc.-- for any project, not just Data Integration. I found one of the steps particularly interesting for what it left out:

4. Direct and Manage Project Execution The Project Manager needs to make sure that everybody is doing what they should be doing...(emphasis mine)

The italicized statement is a huge assumption-- it supposes that the manager and team knows what tasks are required, how they are related, how long they should take, and why they are required. In other words, it supposes that the project manager can answer the famous "six questions" that all reporters ask about a news story. Unfortunately, many times this is a faulty assumption, since project managers do not necessarily have experience in data integration solutions, and may not have access to this expertise.

At Baseline, we answer these questions every day:

• Who - Who should be involved in each step of the implementation process
• What - What should be done to successfully accomplish the project, based on vast experience in developing and implementing industry best practices
• When - What sequence in which the tasks should be performed, and how they are related to each other
• How - The skills required to accomplish the tasks, and the ability to identify these skills in client staff
• Where - Assumed to be the client site (the least important question)
• Why - How detailed tasks relate to a proven project implementation methodology that has been developed by Baseline

The simple act of answering these six questions puts you well on the road to successful project completion. Of course, that?s not all there is to it, but it?s a good start?one that a surprising number of experienced project managers forget!

---

Stephen Putman has over 20 years experience supporting client/server and internet-based operations from small offices to major corporations.  He has extensive experience in a variety of front-end development tools, as well as relational database design and administration, and is extremely effective in project management and leadership roles.

Business Intelligence: Finding the Edges

By Rob Paller, Consultant

photo by H. Michael Karshis

When was the last time you did or witnessed something creative? Did you say to yourself, “That’s what happens when you think outside the box!”? Contrary to the cliché, creativity isn’t found by thinking outside the box but from finding the edges and stretching them. Over the past couple years the BI industry has gone through its share of mergers and acquisitions. Many of the big players have been absorbed as the consuming companies tried to round out their offerings and becoming the data equivalent of a Walmart supercenter.

While the big players fight to find room inside the box, start-ups and open source players (OS) are left to find ways to remain on the radars of prospective customers who are otherwise looking for stability in a vendor during a time where VC money is getting harder to come by and the distinction of being open source is losing its sheen. This leaves the start-ups and OS vendors the opportunity to find the edges of the box. That is where these vendors must find new ways to distinguish themselves.

There is a fair amount of discussion going on among the BI tribe regarding their BI predictions in 2009 including how business intelligence can help a company become greener, the impact that SaaS will have on BI, and defining BI 2.0. While these are all great ideas on their own, what is seemingly being lost is the ability for a BI environment to remain nimble once deployed allowing new features to be deployed sooner and enabling knowledge users to stretch the edges of BI within their companies. Toss all of those vendor contracts, licensing costs, and maintenance agreements into in a box for now. (And I don’t mean the recycling container under your desk!) Instead let’s walk around the edge for a minute and see if there is potential to push the boundaries.

Consider Ubuntu, an open source operating system, with its six month release cycle. Initially released in 2004, Ubuntu has adhered to this cycle while also offering a long-term support version providing a stable foundation for business making a long term investment in Ubuntu. Imagine the potential for a BI solution that delivers new features every six months fostering those who thrive on creativity. Is this pushing the edge too far?

---

Rob Paller is an expert at business analytics and database administration. Since joining Baseline, Rob has been responsible for developing a case analysis system to streamline the oversight of food assistance benefits, implementing a common citizen data model, and assisting in the rollout of a new public assistance data model integrating data from over 10 years of legacy with a new benefit eligibility determination system.

Disruptive Technologies: Governance in Action

By Carol Newcomb, Senior Consultant

photo by roland

I recently consulted on a Customer Data Governance program implementation project.  I must say, most companies get to the point where they design to death what governance should look like, how it should operate, who should be on which committees and who should have specific decision rights.  But how often have you ever seen data governance work well?  What does a governance policy even LOOK like?
Yeah, yeah, governance is the “4 pillars of People, Processes, Decisions Rights and Controls”, or it’s the “5 boxes of Alignment, Oversight, Measurability, Visibility, and Transparency”, but come on—what does it FEEL like?  How does it really WORK??  What makes it happen??  How can people understand it when they are told it is so important?  Who does what?

Face it.  Governance is disruptive.  We speak of disruptive technologies, like the cell phone or FaceBook, the Hybrid automobile, or the laptop computer.  These were all disruptive in their day.  They changed the way we think about social networks, distances between people and getting around.  Governance is disruptive because it seizes control from the hands (silos) of data analysts, IT staff and report writers, and puts it squarely into the laps of business people who (unknowingly) need the data to make accurate and timely business decisions.  Oh, and did we mention—share the data with each other?  Just think of the power of sharing trusted data and how much more efficient and effective the business would become with strong dependencies instead of weak, redundant independencies.

“Don’t put those decisions in MY LAP.”  We hear this all the time.  Why not?  It’s your bread and butter.  Stand up and be accountable for the fact that you don’t trust the data, but you still report it up the chain of command.  Show that you’re willing to expose who made what data decision, when, and how broad the impacts on actually are.  Be proud of the data that you use to run your portion of the business.    This is uncomfortable stuff.  Trust?  You want me to TRUST the data you lob over the fence? 
Well, let me think about that and I’ll get back to you.

Governance is disruptive because it breaks down the weaknesses we have that permeate most corporations, no matter what industry you’re in.  It forces people to talk to each other.  It forces people whom we call Data Stewards, to beat the bushes, get people to admit what they’ve been doing and how they’ve been doing it.  It wrests the decisions out of the IT cubicle and puts it squarely on the Director’s desk.  Data quality?  Let me show you our data quality.  Ouch.  Metadata?  How do you spell that?

So, get used to the fact that all change is disruptive.  But, the changes that are REALLY disruptive are those that break down the social and cultural barriers (aka personal barriers) that corporations have allowed to take control of their data, weakened its use as a decision-making tool, and contributed to massive cash outlays in data correction, cleaning and rework just to manipulate data so that it can serve its ultimate purpose: to measure the effectiveness of decisions made and to guide more profitable decisions in the future.  It’s that simple.

---

Carol Newcomb is a Senior Consultant with Baseline Consulting. She specializes in developing BI and data governance programs to drive competitive advantage and fact-based decision making. Carol has consulted for a variety of health care organizations, including Rush Health Associates, Kaiser Permanente, OSF Healthcare, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and more. While working at the Joint Commission and Northwestern Memorial Hospital, she designed and conducted scientific research projects and contributed to statistical analyses.