Blog
Data Governance Network – Maturity assessment
Who are the DGN and why are we running an assessment. The Data Governance Network (DGN) is made up of practitioners from over 30 UK universities. It is primarily a support network to develop and share good practice in relation to data management and governance for the HE sector. It has become clear that in order to provide this support we need to understand where the sector currently is in terms of its capabilities around the management and governance of data. By understanding this we can target the development of tools, techniques and associated guidance to increase our mutual data capability [...]
Watch: Data-Driven Decision Making for Unprecedented Times
This is the recording of the webinar and the lively Q&A hosted July 15,2020. Thanks to my friends at Waterstons for co-creating and delivering the content. They also did all the hosting, so all I did was virtually turn up and - initially - forget to unmute my Mic đ We've had great feedback from the attendees so I hope you enjoy our views on what's changed and how to take advantage of it.
Virtual Learnings
There are many ways to develop a Data Strategy. I don't pretend to have 'the best way', but I do know - from long experience - what works and what doesn't. This was somewhat thrown into turmoil when COVID-19 enforced virtual working. Since then I'm close to completing my second virtual strategy delivery, and will soon be starting a third. I was asked by my latest client to summarise the differences/challenges/opportunities of creating Data Strategies through virtual delivery. I thought it would be useful to share what I feel are the key points.: Engagement: virtual breakouts, voting, time for discussions, etc. [...]
Data Driven decisions in a changing world – Webinar 16th July.
I'm co-hosting a one hour webinar with my friends and colleagues from Waterstons It's based on feedback from our clients on gaining clarity on what to measure, and how to make best use of the outputs of those measurements. Sign up here: https://www.waterstons.com/events/data-driven-decision-making-in-unprecedented-times A litte more context below. Universities are an eclectic mix of cutting-edge research, world changing-innovation and centuries old tradition. Ultra-modern, glass-plated campuses can mask communities that are slow to embrace change. âWeâve always done it like thatâ and âwe tried that in the last transformation programme and it didnât workâ echoes down corridors while world class scientists recreate [...]
The perils of “Swivel Chair Integration”
Any data professional should be a clear advocate of implementing good data management and governance. Like many apparently self-evident statements, this is not quite as simple as it seems. Consider data quality. The go-to best practice approach is 'Clean at the point of capture'. Which is absolutely best practice if you have first understood why you need to capture that data, whether you have the right source or have already captured it elsewhere, what the full range of use cases are and how quality tolerances will be calculated and measured. This is still less than half the job done though. And that's [...]
Data Governance is not Data Science
Data Governance is not Data Science. Which is a shame because it is the latter that excites the senior leadership of most organisations I work with. This is understandable as these individuals are interested in high quality information which informs the decisions and actions they are making on a daily basis. Much of this information is purportedly an output of Data Science. What is less understandable is how the good management and governance of data is somehow divorced from the use of it. This is not a new problem; in the last ten years âData Scienceâ could be replaced by âAnalyticsâ, [...]
Social