Story by Angela Guess
Robert Bates recently wrote for IT Pro Portal
, “In order to implement ‘open data’ practices across a business and improve data flow that can result in better and faster analysis a cultural change needs to take place as well as a technological one. The most important change that needs to be instilled is transitioning the whole business, not just the data insights team, to adopt an agile approach to ways of working. Originating from software development, the principles that make up an agile working methodology can benefit all business areas.”
Bates goes on, “These principles include: Active user involvement; The empowerment for all employees to make decisions; Requirements evolve but timelines are fixed; Make small changes to test and then adapt as necessary; Focus on frequent delivery of products; Complete each feature/task before moving to the next; Adoption of Pareto’s Law (80/20) for efficiency and productivity; Test early and often; Collaborate and cooperate across all stakeholders.”
He continues, “While some of these principles may require slight amendment depending on the team or business unit that they are being applied to, using these as a base, teams can instil more efficient and productive ways of working, particularly in regards to the way they look at data, make requests for insight and apply business intelligence to projects. From a technology standpoint, in order to deliver BI that can quickly adapt to the changing needs of the business a new approach to how data is delivered is required. A new concept that is gaining traction in the business world is viewing data delivery as akin to a supply chain. Currently this is not how most data is accessed and delivered.”
