• Home
  • Diver BI Group
    • Diver | BI
    • Customer Commendations
    • Videos
    • Case Studies & Customers
    • Documents and Brochures
    • Training
    • Diver BI Group Privacy Policy
  • Articles
    • News
    • Accolades
    • Blog
    • Ask Anthony
  • The Team
    • Key Experts
    • Members
      • Dynamic Business Informatics
      • Envisage
      • Chartwell IT
      • Data Management Business Insight
      • Manitex
      • Equiniti ICS
      • Pinnula
      • Dataweave Solutions
    • Partners
      • Dimensional Insight US
      • Dimensional Insight EU
      • Dimensional Insight Asia
      • DI Panama
      • ID Technology (Brazil)
      • Infotool (Nordic Countries)
      • BIMAXIS – DI France
      • Vision IT
      • Zight -Partner for Transport
  • Applications
    • Property
      • Property Prices Portal
    • Supply Chain
      • Retail
      • Distributor
      • Wholesale
      • Manufacturing
      • Produce
      • Beverage Alcohol Suppliers
      • Beverage Alcohol Distributors
      • Autoparts
      • Transport
      • Public Transport
      • DI Program Advisor
    • Healthcare
      • Healthcare
      • DI Surgery Advisor
      • Pharma BI Applications of Diver
    • Finance
      • Finance
      • DI GL Advisor
    • Mobile & SaaS
      • Diver BI SaaS
      • SaaS for Sales Gap Analysis
      • BI designed for Tablet
      • DiveTab – Mobile BI
    • Diverse Industries
      • Travel & Tourism
      • Colleges & Universities
      • Waste Management
      • Parking
      • Telecom Brokerage
      • Economic Trends
      • Maps
      • Carbon Emissions Management
  • Workbench
  • Contact
    • Free Consultation with One of Our Experts
    • Add a New Revenue Stream as a Partner

DiverBIGroup

Business Intelligence Experts

Diver BI Group Blog Chaos v Control. The Art of Balancing Freedom & Governance in Data Analytics

Chaos v Control. The Art of Balancing Freedom & Governance in Data Analytics

21st March 2017

image of a man's hand holding a ball of governanceThe Key Message from Gartner’s Data Summit

In Kathy’s blog highlighting key takeaways form the Gartner Data & Analytics Summit in Dallas, Texas which took place at the beginning of March 2017, she started by sharing the insights of Gartner analyst Thomas Oestrich. In his view organisations need to:

  • Define their “rules of the game”
  • Seek agreement across the organization
  • Appoint data & analytics stewards
  • Avoid over-governing

There followed a debate where two analysts argued from the polarities of “chaos” and “control”, which ultimately came to the (not unexpected) conclusion that there needs to be a balance.

The Risks of Too Much Freedom

The risks inherent in allowing a free-for-all approach for users to carry out ad hoc analysis can be moderated by setting up a rules library, and educating users about the dangers of raw data extraction. Without reference to common standards and naming conventions the mirage-heaven of direct data access quickly turns into the reality of analytics-hell – maybe even worse than spreadsheet-hell.

hand in barbed wireNever before has it been easier for individual users to get at their data using free software downloads and transform it into eye-catching charts and reports. Never before have the frustrations that users traditionally experienced waiting weeks for a report to be written by a specialist programmer been so quickly overcome. But never before has there been so much data from so many sources. Never before has there been so many different field names, or the same field names, in different systems, that mean different things.

Users might, for the first time feel like they are unhandcuffed masters of data transformation, with abilities they had never dreamed of, to control, clean and join data sets together. But are they really “jacks” not masters, susceptible to all the pitfalls of data analysis that have been controlled up to now by more experienced technicians?

In many ways these new tools are a good thing – valuable data is no longer just sitting there wasting space on a server – users are able to gain insights that allow them to do their jobs much more efficiently. But, and this is a very big but, in an organisation with even the simplest data sets, there are always rules, and always anomalies, and always the chance to over or under filter, mismatch field names or misunderstand them.

Big opportunities can quickly become big mistakes. Even analytics experts with years of experience (not mentioning any names here but this is our business after all ….) must test every change, every filter, every calculation in the data transformation process and follow those changes through for as many scenarios as there are in the business before they can be sure that the resulting data model is accurate. And then some. Because it’s far too easy to miss something, and then it’s too late. Decisions have been taken on the basis of your information.

That is why the advice set out by Oestrich is so important.

Oestrich’s Advice for Balance

1. Define the “Rules of the Game”

It makes great sense to have a library of business rules and field name definitions so that all BI users can refer to this when transforming raw data and creating their reports. At Dimensional Insight they call this a “Measure Factory” (See more here). It solves all the issues of users making up new rules that bear no relationship to everyone else’s definitions.

2. Seek Agreement Across the Organisation

This one is obvious if you implement the first one. “Rules of the Game” should be agreed across the organisation. There is no point in making up different rules for different departments on the same data set.  For example, the summary value definition for what constitutes a sales measure should mean the same wherever that value is used. If a department needs a different definition for some purpose it should have a different name, not the same name with a different meaning understood only by those “in the know”.

3. Appoint Data & Analytics Stewards

In an organisation with a lot of data as well as those with only simple data sets, it is enormously helpful to have data stewards – what used to be called Data Base Managers in the old days.  These people were responsible for reviewing and signing off on data changes in the company databases. New tables, new fields and relationships had to be analysed for impact on the rest of the business before these changes were allowed.  In the BI sphere, the issue now is that even if there is still a DBM for the back end system, there is often no-one who has been given responsibility for the shared output on spreadsheets, BI data models and reports. And these have quickly come to replace the standard reports coming out of the back end system. This is where mistakes and misunderstandings can replace consistency.

hands breaking out of handcuffs4. Avoid Over-Governing

Once you have the basic protections in place as defined above, here is where the beauty of ad hoc analysis can be left to do its job.  In the past everyone saw the same information using the same ERP reports. But nowadays, as long as the grounding is solid and the data is sound, clever analysts and ordinary users alike can use the data models to come up with key insights, looking at the data in ways that no-one had ever thought of. Here is the value in letting people at it – let them find out what they need to know to make them more productive and better at their everyday tasks.

A last recommendation of my own

However simple and easy some of the newer BI tools appear to be, beware of them in the wrong, inexperienced hands – especially if you haven’t implemented the first three recommendations above.

It is so, so easy to transform the data and hide information or mistakes – more so even than with spreadsheets. At least you can see what is behind each cell in a spreadsheet – not the case with a finished data model.

My advice for any organisation is to choose a solid BI platform and make sure that you have the rules defined and in place. Only at the stage where you have common, agreed data models, should you let the users out of their cuffs to carry out their own analysis. Don’t make the mistake of allowing your key business information to be derived from a number of different individual data extracts, using multiple free or desktop-only tools that have limited audit control, logging facilities, batch & production facilities and access control levels. You will never be able to trace anything back or understand what went wrong.

With this in mind and by following the advice from Thomas Oestrich and you will hopefully find the right balance.

balanced scales

About Debbie Lonsdale

Debbie Lonsdale

Debbie Lonsdale has been working with the Diver Solution as a BI Consultant at Dynamic Business Informatics since 2008. Her previous experience includes computer programming, analytical and technical roles, team management, account management, sales and marketing in a variety of market sectors, including the Travel Industry and Distribution. She combines this experience as an all round ICT professional in the BI sector.

Tags: ad hoc analytics, Data analytics, data governance, Diver Platform, Gartner 2017, Gartner BI

Articles

  • News
  • Accolades
  • Blog
  • Ask Anthony
  • Diver | BI
  • Customer Commendations
  • Videos
  • Case Studies & Customers
  • Documents and Brochures
  • Training
  • Diver BI Group Privacy Policy

Dynamic Business Informatics Ltd

Distributors of The Diver Platform, providing business consultancy services, products and applications derived from Diver Gateway & Diver Platform.
14 Mellifont Avenue
Dun Laoghaire
Co. Dublin

+353 1 2302022

10 Kenyon Street
Nenagh
Co Tipperary

+353 67 43309

Contact Us

We would love to hear from you! Please submit your query and we will get in touch with you shortly.

Email addresses are never sold, rented, or shared. See our Privacy Policy.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Accolades

  • High Praise for Dimensional Insight for 14th Straight Year in 2023 Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study
  • Best in Klas Report 2023 – Straight A Grades for Dimensional Insight
  • Dimensional Insight Named an Overall Leader by Dresner Advisory Services in 2022 Industry Excellence Awards
  • Dresner Wisdom of Crowds 2022 – Best in Class Results
  • Klas 2022 – A Grades for Dimensional Insight

Copyright © 2023 Diver BI Group · Privacy Policy · website by cubecolour

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.


What Are Cookies?


As is common practice with almost all professional websites this site uses cookies, which are tiny files that are downloaded to your computer, to improve your experience. This page describes what information they gather, how we use it and why we sometimes need to store these cookies. We will also share how you can prevent these cookies from being stored however this may downgrade or 'break' certain elements of the sites functionality.


For more general information on cookies, please read "What Are Cookies".


How We Use Cookies


We use cookies for a variety of reasons detailed below. Unfortunately in most cases there are no industry standard options for disabling cookies without completely disabling the functionality and features they add to this site. It is recommended that you leave on all cookies if you are not sure whether you need them or not in case they are used to provide a service that you use.


Disabling Cookies


You can prevent the setting of cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser (see your browser Help for how to do this). Be aware that disabling cookies will affect the functionality of this and many other websites that you visit. Disabling cookies will usually result in also disabling certain functionality and features of the this site. Therefore it is recommended that you do not disable cookies.


The Cookies We Set




  • Account related cookies


    If you create an account with us then we will use cookies for the management of the signup process and general administration. These cookies will usually be deleted when you log out however in some cases they may remain afterwards to remember your site preferences when logged out.




  • Login related cookies


    We use cookies when you are logged in so that we can remember this fact. This prevents you from having to log in every single time you visit a new page. These cookies are typically removed or cleared when you log out to ensure that you can only access restricted features and areas when logged in.




  • Forms related cookies


    When you submit data to through a form such as those found on contact pages or comment forms cookies may be set to remember your user details for future correspondence.




  • Site preferences cookies


    In order to provide you with a great experience on this site we provide the functionality to set your preferences for how this site runs when you use it. In order to remember your preferences we need to set cookies so that this information can be called whenever you interact with a page is affected by your preferences.




Third Party Cookies


In some special cases we also use cookies provided by trusted third parties. The following section details which third party cookies you might encounter through this site.




  • This site uses Google Analytics which is one of the most widespread and trusted analytics solution on the web for helping us to understand how you use the site and ways that we can improve your experience. These cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the site and the pages that you visit so we can continue to produce engaging content.


    For more information on Google Analytics cookies, see the official Google Analytics page.




More Information


Hopefully that has clarified things for you and as was previously mentioned if there is something that you aren't sure whether you need or not it's usually safer to leave cookies enabled in case it does interact with one of the features you use on our site.


However if you are still looking for more information then you can contact us through our contact page

Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT