One small step for IT, one giant step for Data Quality.

I had a vision. My vision was to get buy-in from IT resources to start data management activities at the start of every IT project. Tough thing to achieve when performance is strictly related to delivery, not quality. I could speak [rant..whatever they wanted to call it :P] to them about benefits until I was blue in the face, but until I could describe what the benefits were in terms of project delivery risk management, they quickly went back to managing projects to the way they are used to so they could quickly start on the next one.

I knew that to really get them to listen I needed to put it in their perspective. What are the project risks they encounter every day? What goals are they trying to achieve and how did this tie into the satisfaction of their clients?

Here is what I know:

• They are busy all the time
• They have a lot of projects to deliver and limited resources - so no time to even think about new processes
• They have some satisfied and some not-so satisfied clients
• They are measured on project delivery (dates) not project quality

So how did I get their attention and show them that pro-active data management activities could help them achieve some of their goals?

I made a diagram. Everyone loves a diagram and no one has time to read text anymore. Plus, I made the diagram in such a way that it has a look similar to a Gantt chart. The goal of the diagram was to show that by not integrating data management activities into their project processes they were actually increasing the data related after project churn: Change requests, data clean-up, data reconciliation etc. These post project activities also used more not less resources (including business resources), which in turn cost money and time and led to less than satisfied clients.

When put in that perspective, most of them nodded their heads in agreement and even provided their own examples of what that after project churn looked like. I’d like to say that after a few of these presentations the corporation saw the light and made a broad announcement that from this day forward Data Quality is a top priority! I’m kidding here…! What did happen though is that the requests to provide Data Quality direction in pre-project analysis increased significantly thereafter. One small step for IT, one giant step for DQ :)

Here is the diagram. Click on it to see a larger view.

I

I'm not dead yet!

No, I was not unwell, just laying low for a bit and trying to get my bearings. I am part of a new team and just wanted to make sure I wasn’t rocking any boats with my social participation. It turned out to be a good move. The organization I work for (including my new boss), just finished drafting up some proposed guidelines for employee’s use of social media. I thought I’d just sit tight and wait until they came out so I could have a look and make sure I wasn’t breaking any corporate policies. As it happens I’m good to go, my new boss is cool with whatever I do as long as:

1/ I don’t get him fired

2/ I don’t get his boss fired

I like his nice broad guidelines, I should be able to follow them easy peasy. I suggested to him they should be our corporate policy for employee’s use of social media. Nice and short and ‘to the point’! Alas, some people have a need for more complete and specific information … details schmetails....

We still have an MDM initiative underway and Data Governance will play a big part of the solution. What is happening right now is a lot of process stuff to get a project of this size approved and organized; funding, governance, approvals, stakeholder participation, budgeting etc.. Things should start to ramp up in the next month or so and I will be sure to post some stories on what the goals, challenges, successes and fun 2010 brings!

Thanks Goodness! I felt like I was missing all the fun!

And yes, in addition to being a Star Trek fan I am also a fan of Monty Python! Brilliance is Brilliance…say no more…say no more..