Category archive for ‘Reality Check’ 
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A new years resolution to data profile
Well, it's the time of making and breaking resolutions, a time when setting realistic goals is sometimes hard to do with all the optimism of the new year. Sometimes, we make decisions NOT to set a goal, because we don't want to break it. You might be thinking you really should step up your data [...]
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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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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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When the right tool is not a standard tool.
Phil Simon (@philsimon) tweeted a link to an article in the Harvard business review that talks about the dangers of being "overly tool standardized" within an organisation that I thought was very interesting. Now, of course, standards are needed, and for a broad range of tools its counter productive (and horrifically expensive) to let everyone [...]
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Let’s admit it- centralized business intelligence alone just doesn’t work
One version of the truth. Data warehouses. Centralized business intelligence teams. This has been the best practice for business intelligence for the last two decades. Users taking the initiative with data has been seen as the enemy of a successful business intelligence program. This needs to change. In a world of ever increasing data volumes [...]
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Estimating the cost of Business Intelligence
How much does a single Business Intelligence report cost a company? Well, obviously there is no single answer- but Boris Evelson of Forrester took a shot at it recently in a blog post. Even when it's not an easy question, it is worth pursuing, and Boris lays out a useful discussion. $150 000 is the [...]
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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 [...]
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Business Intelligence adoption low and falling
It seems that the level of adoption of business intelligence tools as a percentage of users is much lower than typically thought. The data warehouse institute (TDWI) published a commentary on the latest business intelligence survey. This survey, published by the business application research center, reports that although your BI vendor might be telling you [...]
