IData Insights

Recently we were working with a client and it came to us after much discussion that the right name for the key problems they were facing was something that should be called "data friction." In the...

The big day last week in the United States was Independence Day, July 4^th, and we hope everyone was able to enjoy it in their own way. The first week of July is often significant and occasionally...

It is difficult to hire an expert on the data at your organization. Usually, this expertise comes from years of working at your organization. You do not want your subject matter experts (key data...

What should you avoid when you are creating a data governance roadmap for your organization which also includes doing an assessment of your current data governance and data intelligence efforts? From...

Many years ago we worked with a person whose default position on a surprisingly large variety of issues and tasks came down to something like, "If you don't do things this way, the IRS can fine our...

In this space last year we devoted a number of posts to how organizations can better understand data literacy among their employees, what sorts of data literacy competencies already exist, what sorts...

During technology projects there are many challenges as well as opportunities. And data governance and data intelligence can assist. Technology projects might include migrating to a new ERP,...

Let's discuss some ways that you can apply data governance best practices to your technology project and in an efficient way. Technology projects could include conversion to a new ERP solution,...

A decade or so ago, when we would introduce the Data Cookbook as a product an organization might be interested in, we generally had to make the case for data governance first, before demonstrating...

You want to gain greater acceptance of your data intelligence, data governance, and data catalog efforts at your organization. You do this by getting more employees involved in the efforts and...

We were recently reminded of #MonkeyFirst, which was something between a thought experiment and an analogy produced by Astro Teller of Google X. Briefly, for those of you who missed it the first time...

Important content in a data governance knowledge base is a data flow catalog which contains information about such items as reports, dashboards, ETLs, data flow integrations, and surveys. Maybe you...

This blog post suggests the best sources of definition content and ways to determine what should be defined. The sources are existing popular reports, pre-existing local glossaries, data dictionaries...

In this blog post we will be discussing data governance or data intelligence committees (or whatever your organization calls it). Sometimes these committees are ineffective. There is nothing wrong...

As data practitioners, we assume that even the most skilled user can and will make mistakes, and we have a number of safeguards in place to prevent or remediate them. When users are entering an...

When an organization performs a survey (such as internal ones to employees or external ones to clients) they are more beneficial if they are tied to their data governance and data intelligence...

This blog post will discuss best practices when creating, monitoring, and reviewing a survey, either an internal survey to employees of your company, or to customers of your organization or to...

Your organization, if it has reached certain thresholds of size or complexity, has data stakeholders at all levels and across all domains. A data stakeholder, defined broadly, is someone who uses,...

We have a great deal of resources (blog posts, videos, and recorded webinars)  related to a variety of topics and components in data governance (or what we call data intelligence).

Topics include: ...

A data governance and data intelligence initiative is very important to an organization. And for the initiative to succeed it needs to have a trained staff and communication to those involved which...

Communication is key in data intelligence and data governance success. Communication with employees should be ongoing and when an employee is hired. Spread the word. Explain to every level in your...

In this blog post we will discuss what should be included on a data intelligence and data governance portal (or web page) and how often that data governance training should be done. Previously we did...

A finished report that was requested or a published business glossary entry are examples of front office data governance-related deliverables. But there is a lot of work that goes into the creation...

A successful organization needs to have trained employees. And part of this, you need know who you are training and what you need to train them on. Everybody does not need to know everything. Every...

Building a technology tool inventory will be beneficial to your organization. This post describes the benefits of having a technology tool inventory, steps we recommend to build your technology tool...