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The CFO-CIO Pathway to Business Cohesion
BY Mark Atkins
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 6 MINUTES
A recent survey concludes that CFOs and CIOs need to work better together. They need cohesive visions, strategies, and objectives. Here’s my summary, which reveals some interesting facts about the rising costs of information technology, the adoption of emerging technologies, and CFO's demanding better ROI, especially from ERP implementations.
Read itThe crucial role of definitions in holding insurance companies accountable
BY TERRY SMITH
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 3 MINUTES
In the world of insurance, we pay our premiums for the promise of protection, but are often met with the harsh realities of denied claims, long drawn-out processes and appalling or non-existent communication. These delay-deny tactics seem to be getting more and more prevalent.
Read itImproving ROI for infotech projects using a language-driven approach
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 6 MINUTES
The return on investment for information technology projects is questionable. According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), 36% of projects failed to meet their business objective. We provide a language-driven approach to mitigating the risk of these kinds of failure.
Read itMyth Busting: It's too hard to align common terms
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 2 MINUTES
Glossary specialists often avoid trying to gain consensus of commonly used business terms because of the sheer number of stakeholders and diversity of opinion that will need to be aligned. Learn how we’ve busted this myth with our definition standard and forthcoming book on a strategy for achieving successfully aligned definitions plus other unexpected benefits, including reduced regulatory risk!
Read itMyth Busting: Glossaries require too many stakeholders to be successful (or even establish)
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 2 MINUTES
People are often scared to undertake glossaries because of the sheer number of stakeholders and diversity of opinion that will need to be corralled into a room and brought to consensus for each term definitions. Learn how we’ve busted this myth with our system that creates engagement in the glossary building process and results in successfully written definitions, even for the trickiest terms. Plus other unexpected benefits!
Read itMyth Busting: Glossary content is obsolete by the time you’ve completed it
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 2 MINUTES
Many people think there’s no point in spending a lot of time & effort on a glossary – the content is obsolete before it’s even finished. But all this proves is that they don’t know how to manage an effective glossary.
Read itMyth Busting: Only data management professionals need a glossary, and glossaries are only for data management
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 2 MINUTES
Learn why business staff benefit from having terminology catalogued, defined and accessible to the rest of the organisation, busting the myth that business glossaries are only for data management and the teams who work in that field.
Read itMyth Busting: No staff member is irreplaceable
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 2 MINUTES
Business face significant unseen risk whenever a staff member leaves their employ. Business information held in the heads of existing staff represents potential loss of time, money and ability. In a very tangible, practical way, not all staff are replaceable. Learn how to mitigate this risk as we bust the replaceability myth in this month's blog.
Read itMyth Busting: We can save money by accepting terminology and out-of-the-box configuration
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 2 MINUTES
Think customising out-of-the-box enterprise software isn't worth the cost? Your staff, business processes and language can all be adjusted for free, right? Think again. It actually represents huge financial and operational risk. In this month's myth busting blog we help business leaders see the true cost of non-customised software.
Read itMyth Busting: IT should manage your business term glossary
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 2 MINUTES
Business term glossaries are often seen as a tool that exists to support data management, so it seems logical to have your glossary managed by IT. But there are some very good reasons why this is not an effective choice, and in this month's myth-bust, we unpack them and explain what we think is the better option.
Read itMyth Busting: Mapping the data fabric of your organisation has value for the business
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 1.6 MINUTES
If your business is considering instigating a data fabric, data mesh or data warehouse upgrade project, we encourage you to stop and think it through again. This month we've myth-busted the idea that such undertakings are inherently valuable to organisations — they can be valuable, but only sometimes.
Read itMyth Busting: Your business glossary is there to serve your data management
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 2 MINUTES
Many IT professionals and business analysts think building a business glossary is something that gets done to support a data management activity or project. But this belief is most definitely a myth that needs busting. The primary benefit of a business glossary lies entirely on the business side.
Read itWhat Crown Casino and Westpac need
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 9.25 MINUTES
As Crown Casino and Westpac begin implementing procedural changes to help bring their organisations into regulatory compliance, senior leaders and overseers need to have visibility around what's actually being done, not just over what official procedures are written and officially adopted. But how can they get that visibility? We think we've got the answer.
Read itLessons learned from 20 years of quality IM building – Part 2
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 9 MINUTES
Those wanting to implement quality and effective information management (IM) in large businesses often face much bigger challenges than knowing the specifics of what to do. The tougher piece of the puzzle is convincing peers and management that what needs to be done is the only way to truly achieve high quality, effective information management.
Read itLessons learned from 20 years of quality IM building – Part 1
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 6.5 MINUTES
If you're involve in information management improvement in your organisation, this blog offers the best of our wisdom gained from 20 years of improving information quality across a range of sectors, businesses, business cultures and even countries. Bottom line: There are the core features & activities of great information management, consistent across all those diverse contexts. Ignore them at your peril.
Read itGetting business staff to deliver their definitions
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 7.25 MINUTES
If you're sending out Excel spreadsheets hoping to get business staff to fill them with business term definitions, you're probably getting nowhere. Word documents aren't much better. But fear not, we've unpacked why these methods don't work, and what methods will.
Read itDefinition Writing Skills to Set You Apart
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 6.5 MINUTES
If you want to increase the success of your definition writing efforts, these five key skills are essential. Create greater clarity, write more effective definitions and deliver a more targeted and efficient experience for stakeholders.
Read itThe Definition Writing How-To Road Map
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 10 MINUTES
Definition writing can be overwhelming, and hard. If your job includes getting definitions written for requirement documents, here's the helpful roadmap you've been dreaming of. It'll have you reaching the summit of Mt Definition Writing before you know it, with definitions that will be worth the effort.
Read itConvincing your business they need business glossary investment
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 11 MINUTES
Convincing management that glossary investment is a good idea can be tough. So we've pulled together this guide to equip you with the arguments you need to win them over and get your glossary funded.
Read it5 Reasons you should hire a glossary expert when beginning your glossary build
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 6 MINUTES
Building a glossary is a big undertaking. It can be a long, hard road with many pitfalls. Hiring glossary experts may seem like an unnecessary drain on the budget, but the right experts will enable you to deliver a glossary that carries an ROI for your business. Here's 5 reasons you should hire some today!
Read itLanguage, culture and risk to life: how one airline's unseen language ambiguity put life, assets & business assurance at risk
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 3 MINUTES
Don't think ambiguity in your language is really that big a risk? Think again. Learn from the experience of TUI Airlines and make sure your business doesn't make the same mistakes.
Read itA good BA enables good IM
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 5 MINUTES
BAs have a central role in project success – they manage the definition work that underpins communication between business and IT staff. Businesses who realise the value of this work will invest in developing these skills in their BAs. Learn more about what these skills are and why this investment is a smart business choice.
Read itIf your projects are failing, your glossary isn't working hard enough
BY TERRY SMITH
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 4 MINUTES
When IT projects fail, I can almost guarantee that your glossary isn't doing the heavy lifting it should be. When it does, communication is clear and the definitional misunderstandings that cause project failure are eliminated.
Read itThe Slog – a realistic picture of the journey toward a fully functioning glossary
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 4 MINUTES
If you've got a glossary build on your to-do list this year, knowing the realistic timelines you'll need to have to achieve a quality outcome will help ensure engagement, endurance and success.
Read itGlossaries are not Instruction Manuals
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 3 MINUTES
TMI – too much information! Glossaries can be overloaded with wordy definitions trying to double as instruction manuals. This is a mistake and is easily avoided with our alternative approach to important tech terms.
Read itWhat Terms Should I Define First?
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 6 MINUTES
When you're facing a mountain of business terms that need definitions, it can be overwhelming. In this month's blog, we outline the path to glossary success by explaining how to prioritise your definition writing to get the biggest wins first, maintain enthusiasm and reach your glossary goals.
Read itGlossary Alternatives: Collibra & Intralign
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 6 MINUTES
When choosing a glossary tool it can be difficult to know whether the high priced, big-name options are right for your business. In this blog, we unpack Collibra's glossary, one of the biggest players on the field, and compare it with our own Intralign Encyclopaedia.
Read itShould your glossary be connected to your data management software?
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 4 MINUTES
Most data management tools have a glossary component that is designed to give the business term definitions for associated data elements. We're fans of glossaries but not these ones. Find out why in this month's blog.
Read itHow a small company saved $700K by applying basic information management
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 5 MINUTES
Read how business & data analysis saved a small company from a ~$700K investment they could not afford, which would not have resolved the core issues, retaining unseen risk.
Read it5 Reasons You Must Manage Your Glossary (not just create it)
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 4 MINUTES
You've pushed through the hard work of creating your glossary and defining all the key terms. Now what?
Don't make the rookie mistake of thinking you're done.
A glossary must have ongoing management if it's going to deliver the benefits a great glossary can. We've outlined the specific reasons your glossary needs ongoing management, in case you need to be convinced.
Investing in Information Governance – what you need to know to get it right
BY TERRY SMITH
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 5 MINUTES
If you've fallen into the trap of thinking information governance is just a regulatory requirement, then think again. Great information governance can improve information quality and deliver solid ROI.
Read itThe all new Intralign Encyclopaedia V4
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 3 MINUTES
In June 2020 the Intralign Encyclopaedia V4 upgrade will be released. Version 4 includes visual and functional upgrades to make using your business glossary, managing & leveraging your information artefacts, and delivering quality information to your organisation even easier.
Read itHow to use a Business Term Glossary for all it's Worth
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 5 MINUTES
To get the ROI you want from your business term glossary, you've got to ensure your business is using it for all it's worth. That means maximising usage so that your business information gets the benefit of all those great definitions.
Read itThe 5 Key Features of a Definition that Delivers
BY TERRY SMITH
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 5 MINUTES
From our years of helping businesses write definitions for their trickiest business terms, we've developed these five key features that every successful definition needs. Use them and you'll have a glossary that truly delivers better quality information.
Read itWhy your business shouldn't have multiple glossaries
– except when it should
BY TERRY SMITH
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 5 MINUTES
If you're involved with your organisation's business term glossary and trying to get buy-in and active usage across functional areas, the goal of a unified corporate language can feel impossible. If staff are already happy with their localised glossary, the reward of a centralised one looks pretty slim. While the cost to the organisation of not having one can be high, is there ever justification for multiple glossaries? Shouldn't some terms just be owned by the one division who use them?
Read itThe four abilities of a fantastic information management landscape
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 7 MINUTES
All businesses need solid information management foundations in order to achieve reliable reporting, stable IT costs and to enable senior managers to make confident business decisions.
But how can you tell if your foundations are solid?
And if they're not, what do they need to get solid?
We've defined four “abilities” your foundations need, in order to deliver quality information within your business.
Assessing your business's information management quality
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 3 MINUTES
Your reporting numbers are the tip of an iceberg – your information management iceberg. Most business leaders who rely on those reporting numbers have no idea what lies beneath them... In this blog we assess your business's information management quality with a short and effective quiz.
Read itWhat's going on under your reporting?
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 2 MINUTES
Do you really understand what has gone on to get that report onto your desk? And if something is inconsistent with previous reports, inexplicable changes, conflicting numbers, then what do you do? Even worse, when the figures don't seem right, and a resolution is required, you may come to see just how little anyone understands the full picture of what's going on. And that's dangerous for business assurance.
Read itIT are NOT Business Information Managers - so stop expecting
them to be
BY TERRY SMITH
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 2 MINUTES
Information management is often left to IT. But Information is used, generated, owned and required by business staff. In this blog we discuss why it's logical and efficient that business staff should be in charge of managing information.
Read itGlossaries don't communicate, people do
BY TERRY SMITH
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 2 MINUTES
If you think the fact that you have a business glossary means your people are communicating clearly and effectively across your business functional areas, think again. That kind of great communication doesn't happen because someone put a term with a definition into a glossary...
Read itImproving poor information foundations – The CFO's Software Purchase Checklist Part 2
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 7 MINUTES
In our previous blog, we offered CFO's a checklist to determine whether a new software purchase/build is the right choice to make, right now, to solve the problems a business is having in generating the reporting figures they need. If you've gone through that checklist and realised you need to shore up your information foundations before approving a new software project, you're going to want to know how. In this blog, we outline the five pillars that form business information foundations.
Read itKnowing When To Approve A Software Purchase – The CFO's Checklist
BY TERRY SMITH
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 6 MINUTES
If you're a CFO and you're being asked to approve yet another “this will solve everything” software tool purchase, you're right to question it. In fact, it's your job to question it. But as a finance person, not an IT person, you're often on the back foot when it comes to understanding whether the software purchase is really the right answer to the problems your business is experiencing...
Read itThe Beginners Guide to Planning IT Projects that Fail
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 6 MINUTES
Is it just us, or have you noticed this too… IT projects have a tendency to fail? Whether the project has a huge scope and significant budget, or it's small and concise, there just seems to be an unwritten law in the universe that says things won't go to plan, budget or schedule.
But why? Projects can have the most experienced BAs and project managers, yet we still see these types of project failures.
The Top 7 Mistakes Execs Make in Information Management
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 10 MINUTES
In our many years of working with complex business environments, facing information management (IM) issues, we have continually seen senior Executives who have misconceptions about how information should be managed.
Over time, we've realised these misconceptions – or wrong thinking – along with the resulting behaviour – wrong doing – can be boiled down to 7 key mistakes which will almost always lead to wrong numbers in reporting activities.
See a problem, pick it up, all the day you'll have good quality business information
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 7 MINUTES
I recently heard an interview that got me thinking about how all businesses create and promote a certain culture among their staff. Too many companies in which we've worked, mostly inadvertently, promote a fear-based culture that encourages the covering up of issues from managers and executive teams. This is a recipe for bad business assurance.
Read itThe Business Case for a Business-wide Glossary
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 7 MINUTES
When looking at the cost of a glossary specific software platform, the obvious elephant in the room is whether the cost is really justified. And the answer is, of course, no it isn't… if you're only using it for a single project.
In this blog, we're discussing why it should be a BAs goal to establish an organisation-wide business term glossary, which can be used for each and every project, as well as many other purposes throughout the organisation.
Beyond Language Workshops – Specialist Glossary Requirements
BY TERRY SMITH
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 6 MINUTES
Most BAs know that term definition activity at the start of the project is necessary for IT scoping staff to do an accurate job of costing the project.
In this blog we discover how glossaries are not just useful for accurate scoping. Glossaries carry the success of the whole project, and can mean the difference between a solution being successful at delivering what the business requested or that solution failing significantly and being unfixable.
We've seen this first hand…
Workshops Versus 1:1 Interviews – which is best for a BA's scoping activities?
BY TERRY SMITH
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 8 MINUTES
Recently, we've been having some conversations with business analysts about whether they find workshops or 1:1 interviews more effective when gathering project information for business cases and business requirement documents.
In this blog we'll talk about these two options, when we think one works best, when the other, and we'll also discuss the crucial third option that is often overlooked – collaborative online environments.
The Haunted (data ware)House of Horrors:
A nightmare journey through warehouse project hell
BY TERRY SMITH
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 7 MINUTES
As we approach the haunting week of Halloween, images of spooky, evil creatures begin to appear everywhere, from google search pages to the neighbour's front yards. But if you've spent any amount of time working in organisations that collect large amounts of data that gets funnelled into a corporate dashboard, we can almost guarantee the scariest scene you most often face is the cursed reports generated from bone-chilling and deathly data warehouses. Let's take a quick walk through the harrowing halls of the data warehouse of horrors…
Read itC-Suite Special Series Part 4:
Management and Governance – get clear on the difference
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 7 MINUTES
This final instalment of our C-Suite Special Series is targeted to one of the most impact-heavy mistakes we see high level management making; one that has the potential to be hugely detrimental to ongoing business assurance, in this age of ever-expanding legal and regulatory requirements.
Management and Governance - Do you know the difference?
C-Suite Special Series Part 3:
Essential communication skills for CEOs
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 6 MINUTES
IT staff have an impossible task – to provide the entire enterprise with perfect tools for the collection, storage and usage of data, which must always be perfect because they will then feed perfect reports on which perfect business decisions can be made. One imperfection in the report figures and the IT department gets the blame. But it's not usually their fault. And almost never their fault entirely. Greater fault often lies with business staff who don't have sufficient knowledge, or don't have the skills and tools, to communicate effectively with IT staff. But the imperfect report isn't really their fault either...
Read itC-Suite Special Series Part 2:
Why your struggles are your greatest strength
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 6 MINUTES
So often in modern businesses we find a culture of covering up, down playing or outright denial of problems, mistakes and struggles. People are fearful of admitting their inability to be perfect and to do everything perfectly, because it may impact their reputation, career or prospects within the company, or even their job security. We know how this type of culture can undermine business assurance, but it goes deeper than just the long-term security of the business bottom line. Recognising your organisation's struggles is the clearest signpost to your greatest potential for impact.
Read itC-Suite Special Series Part 1:
What does being a great business leader really mean?
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 7 MINUTES
We all know what its like to be “just one of the worker bees” in huge companies who's C-Suite leaders don't seem to know or care what's really happening down on the ground of their business.
Those leaders only stay a few years, they make a few “quick win” decisions that seem to improve the bottom line but everyone knows those decisions will come back to bite the company in a few years. And we all know...
Better Business Assurance 101: Information Governance
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 8 MINUTES
In Season Two of the Netflix production 'A Series of Unfortunate Events', we see the Bauldelaire children befriend Hal, the overseer of a hospital records library. In Hal's library, records arrive down a chute and filing can begin. In keeping with the quirky nature of the series, it's clear that while Hal runs an imbecilely tidy and efficient library, filing things immediately and with minimal fuss, the system has been created to get things filed without much thought to why anyone might want to file, keep or access the items being filed. It's a humorous and silly twist in the ongoing saga, but for those of us who've worked in or with large organisations, that create large amounts of (particularly digital) information, it cuts amusingly close to the bone.
Read itThe Lessons of Wiki – Why businesses need an absolute truth
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 3 MINUTES
For several years it's been recognised that Wikipedia's army of contributors is shrinking. To add further complexity to our search for reliable information, we are unavoidably subjected to short snippets of news for which facts must largely be assumed. Of greater concern is that these same patterns and practices are creeping into our business information.
Read itThe Cost of Convenience Part 2: Digital Disruption
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 3 MINUTES
Digital disruption is becoming a necessary consideration for every industry and individual. While the initial consumer savings may be a welcome change, the impact on our entire economy is looming and the outlook isn't particularly good.
Read itThe Cost of Convenience Part 1: Cyber Security
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 2 MINUTES
As the new year does its best to wake up and start Australia moving once again, I can't shake the one topic that sums up my current thinking about 2018: Uber.
It seems that it was 2017's issues of cyber security that threaten to have the biggest immediate impact on all of our day to day lives in the coming year and beyond.
Uber's recent revelation of its cyber security breech came at an interesting time for me, not because I'm likely to be one of the 1.2 million Australians in the Uber breach but because, as a business owner, the threat of being hacked is an ever-increasing concern.
Why IT staff should care about how the business defines its terms
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 4 MINUTES
When someone in your business asks you to build a “solution” to meet their business need, it's the start of a long process you both hope will be successful.
But we know that's not always the case. And when it isn't, they'll blame you for blowing out time and/or budget and for the end product not being what they wanted.
You'll likely be able to point out that you delivered what they asked for, but what they asked for wasn't what they really wanted, and how were you meant to know that?
Read itThe Cost of Flawed Intelligence
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 3 MINUTES
We are all experiencing the rise of “big data” and “analytics” as key strategic initiatives in large organisations. I find myself often questioning whether these expensive investment decisions are based on facts about real business issues or more on opinions and analytical assumptions, often reinforced by technology vendors.
But without understanding an organisation's operational and informational issues, there can be little chance of solid return from such investment. The decisions are being based on “flawed” intelligence – and we know where that can lead.
Data, Information and ensuring Michelin quality in the dining room
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 3 MINUTES
Once an expertly prepared meal leaves the kitchen, the Michelin starred chef knows that the dish will be carried through the dining room in a specific way, presented to the table according to standards and protocols...
But in your business, who's controlling the delivery, presentation, usage and accompaniments to your information artefacts? Can those who are consuming those business information artefacts assume everything has been controlled so that their experience of the information will be of a consistent quality?
Data, Information and why Michelin starred chefs are control freaks in their kitchens
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 3 MINUTES
A Michelin starred chef runs a tight ship in his kitchen.
The kitchen team have a clear hierarchy. Each member has very specific responsibilities. They follow strict food preparation instructions, following exact recipes.
It is no less important for your organisation to govern its business information kitchen. The creation of business information resources (we like to call them artefacts) should be strongly governed, to guarantee the business and financial assurance of the company.
Data, Information and why Michelin star chefs don't buy supermarket produce
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 3 MINUTES
You know that moment, the first mouthful of the dish, when the taste powerfully infuses through your taste buds and somehow takes over your entire focus – the meal is THAT good. The difference between that Michelin quality meal and our home cooked “good enough” dinner is not dissimilar to information produced from data stores within organisations. The same raw data is available to all but the results that come from using it can vary greatly...
Read itAircraft Wing Failure (and Why Business Definition Standards are Essential to Information Governance)
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 4 MINUTES
In the mid 80s I worked for an aircraft manufacturer. My job there involved assigning identification numbers to raw materials – everything from sheet metal to bags of rivets and fasteners to avionics – and tracking their use against each manufactured component of the aircraft. Similar to data lineage, this requirement covers the eventuality of a component failure in an operational aircraft, allowing traceability back to the faulty component batch and forward to other aircraft using components from the same batch. But my story here is about the aircraft design, in particular, wing design...
Read itDMZ, Wooden Stairs and Data Modelling
BY MARK ATKINS
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 2 MINUTES
For several years, I've been concerned with a trend in my clients' DW and BI groups to leave the data modelling (design) to the ETL developers (builders). My concerns here aren't ones of safety, like the stairs, but of (a) the future of data modelling...
Read itCookies or Biscuits? The Power of a Common Business Language
BY TERRY SMITH
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 2 MINUTES
With today's data explosion, we are drowning in data but starving for information. The onslaught of cheap processing power and data storage has enabled a significant increase in the data stored within an organisation. Unfortunately, in many cases that data cannot provide business intelligence (or information) because there is no clear translation from the data to our information needs or vice versa.
Read it