Category archive for ‘data culture’ 
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Data Quality Rules
What's the difference between good data and bad data? It is much like the difference between good children and bad children- the bad data doesn't follow the rules. But what are the rules? Unlike the rules for kids, which have been fixed in stone for decades (or at least, parents wish it were so), the [...]
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Which myths are holding you back?
In your business you have "facts". Things that are considered to be true. Lots of folks have heard of them, or believe them, and propagate them. But are they true? You are making decisions every day based on these "facts". Obviously, we have to believe something. But today I'm asking you to be skeptical. Question [...]
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Good Data is a force for good.
The United Nations has declared that today is the first world statistics day, "celebrating the many contributions and achievements of official statistics". It's the kind of holiday that those of us in the data wrangling profession can really get behind. Data about people in general, and their well being, their needs and challenges is a [...]
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Data quality challenges: behavioral inertia and its evil opposite
Often, I hear someone say something like "this would be much easier if users would just..." or "If only we could convince the sales people that...". Technology folks often are frustrated by the people component of the complex systems they are trying to install. People are not a problem solved by technology Some try to [...]
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Too much data storage hurts data quality- the toothpaste effect
When I brush my teeth there is a wide range in terms of amount of toothpaste that is acceptable to me. This is not a profound statement- bear with me. Only as the tube of toothpaste starts getting near to its end do I start conserving toothpaste because I know I need to make it [...]
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How the general ledger can become a data warehouse
Many companies today rely on the general ledger as key part of their management reporting, well beyond the obvious financial information. This has often been shaped by how companies first adopted information technology. In some firms, their management reporting systems reflect the fact that as information technology began to be used extensively by business, often [...]
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Spreadsheet errors- Fear, uncertainty and doubt
I love the acronym FUD which stands for "Fear, uncertainty and doubt". What I don't love is the underhanded use of FUD to manipulate peoples behavior. Spreading FUD is not about creating something new, but destroying- destroying someones confidence in something, clouding the real issue, stopping a new or creative direction from being taken. FUD [...]
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The tragedy of anti-data leadership and dataphobia
There has been a lot of discussion in the last year or so about how important data analysis is becoming. IBM made a major move into data analytics by establishing a new organisation "Business Analytics & Optimization Services" with 4000 people in it. There was the much quoted Hal Varian of Google who predicted that [...]
