I read somewhere that over 80% of adults want to write a book, but only 3% ever get to 'The End' of a draft. That means that 97% of people who want to write a book never finish.
Stats like that make accomplishments like getting my “author’s box” of books all the more rewarding.
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People who work in data management are particularly dedicated problem solvers. They are committed to the mission in a way that makes them want to make the initiative successful. Most examples featured in the book reflect what happens in a specific type of data project -- a team-based project with stakeholders recruited from across the organization, including outside partnerships.
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Until an organization is willing to invest in its data capabilities, aligning data resources to answer complex business questions will be like riding a bicycle to chase a Formula One racer and never catching up. Scoping project opportunities well is about building enough trust to eventually scale resources. While a single project manager can accomplish some initiatives, most data projects require multi-disciplinary resources to execute.
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Book Excerpt: While a fully funded budget that supports data as a service is an integral part of a data transformation’s financial picture, few are fully staffed or funded. Three-quarters of executives confirm their organization now has some form of data strategy (however rudimentary), but a paltry 16% say they have the skills and capabilities necessary to deliver it.[1] Even though the average staffing budget is growing yearly, finding the skills and capabilities to execute data projects is becoming harder and harder.
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Book Excerpt: Data has traditionally been managed by a combination of information technology (IT), Operations, and Finance. Over the last ten to fifteen years, the chief data officer (CDO) role has come onto the executive scene. While not yet a universal title, the role of the CDO started by reporting through these functions and is beginning to be considered separate.
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With tell-me features and AI Tools, we forget the importance of and lose ambidexterity skills like managing details and thinking strategically. Additionally, the emphasis used to be on being able to talk to the box and not the people; now, we must reason with the box (and the people). Skills cultivating engaged stakeholders and executive sponsors weren’t emphasized as much but are now increasingly important. Those are radically different skills!
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Image Credit: https://www.jhaiho.com/tattoo-designs/
Writing a book is a lot like getting a tattoo. It’s permanent. It marks a life transition. It's also 95% pain, 2.5% novelty, and 2.5% talking that novelty to others. It's proof I was able to push past the anxiety and deal with the pain to do something creative. Finishing is a wonderful feeling of accomplishment, proof that I made it past all the barriers.
Driving Data Projects is, first and foremost, a love letter to my students. The book highlights two main stumbling blocks they hit: understanding the data supply chain and their role in it and integrating key change management activities like working with executive sponsorship. I also observed these issues outside of the classroom--in almost every organization I've served. Everyone skins their knees on these issues--because they are hard.
Read MoreAfter teaching informatics for seven years, I’ve got a new book coming out! Driving Data Projects.
It’s a love letter to my students and a guide to my fellow colleagues. Many employees seek out or are thrust into a series of responsibilities in data management for which there is little formal training. How they engage with data in those roles impacts the privacy and security of consumer data and overall risk to the company's bottom line. The problem?
They aren’t quite sure how data works or how to drive data projects, not really. Today, almost all projects involve data to some degree, yet the data aspect is not adequately addressed.