Data Governance

How Many Students do we have – Part 2 of 4

By |2023-07-11T09:18:58+01:00July 11th, 2023|What I've done|

This is the second of four articles in the series “why it’s so difficult to agree how many of something we have.”   (note: this is a Guest article by my colleague Rav Ubhi-Adams. First published on Linked In) In the first of our articles, @AlexLeigh set out a high-level approach for answering the common question we all get asked or ask – how many students do we have? Populations are a potential solution to ease some of the frustration on this. Both for those asking and attempting to answer what feels like a simple question! In this article, we’re going to [...]

Tell me again.. how many students do we have?

By |2023-06-19T15:10:09+01:00June 19th, 2023|What I've done|

(This is the first of four articles to discuss why it is so difficult to agree how many of something we have, a proven approach to overcome this, a worked example and an idea of what to do next). A question often asked and rarely answered the same way twice! There are many reasons for this, and most of those can be seen on that quick sketch above which led to a long LINKEDIN discussion about the work we'd done at a recent workshop. Essentially there are two issues to address: 1)    What question are you trying to answer. If we [...]

Data Governance is a wet sock problem!

By |2022-07-26T09:55:04+01:00July 21st, 2021|What I've done|

This might be a bit of a stretch. But stick with me. When my daughter was young, she was very impatient. No idea where she gets it from. Anyway, after a bath, she'd always get dressed without drying herself properly. This led to 'the parable of the wet sock'. Firstly, she had to find the sock. It would often be in the wrong drawer. And it would never be attached to a matched item. After time spent assembling a pair, dragging a once dry sock over a wet foot was a study in frustration. And a sure way to early sock destruction. Completing [...]

Data Myths and what to do about them

By |2021-04-09T13:08:17+01:00April 9th, 2021|What I've done|

A couple of weeks ago Nicola Askham and I posed a question on LinkedIn: "What are the most common Data Myths you hear?'. 6000+ views and a hundred odd comments later suggests this is something worth investigating further. While it felt a bit like group therapy, there is a serious side to myths around data. Firstly they exist- that's a problem because they often confuse or obfuscate the narrative that data really is an organisational wide asset, and must be managed as such. Secondly, they endure- so even the most compelling or nuanced arguments are blocked by a unshiftable ideology around [...]

Data Strategy and Governance – your questions answered

By |2021-01-07T16:09:33+00:00January 7th, 2021|What I've done|

In the last of our 2020 webinars, Nicola and I collected a list of the questions we are asked the most, and made an attempt to answer then all. The video below has those and some questions from attendees on the day. You'll need to click into the blog entry to see the video panel. Wordpress doesn't show it on the preview. Who knows why! And because it was very close to Christmas, you'll see both of us have appropriate themed jumpers :) https://youtu.be/1DB_57sVDCM   This year, we'll be running free "Masterclass' sessions going deeper into specific data strategy and [...]

Putting the Data Strategy to work

By |2020-10-19T10:12:04+01:00October 19th, 2020|What I've done|

So much work on Data Strategies is wasted when they fail to launch. There are many reasons for this - and we'll get back to some of those in a later post - but the one I see the most often is the lack of any framework to 'land' the strategy on. In this masterclass, Nicola and I set out a pragmatic model for implementing Data Governance in support of a strategy. We discuss what needs to go into a framework, why there is no single framework for every organisation and the importance of leading with culture. We finish with an [...]

Data Sharing Agreements – what, why and how.

By |2020-08-21T14:53:24+01:00August 21st, 2020|What I've done|

What are data sharing agreements and where do they fit in a Data Governance framework? On first analysis, it’s not obvious that they do! However, they are relevant when we consider the scope of that framework. The production, manipulation and use of data outside of our organisations are often forgotten when considering data quality. We focus on internal ingress points which are mostly controlled through our own stewards and producers. This can be a dangerous assumption as external data is far more common than we might think. It fits into two distinct areas: Additional data sets. These are often paid-for datasets which augment [...]

Webinar: Data is your GPS

By |2020-07-31T10:16:10+01:00July 31st, 2020|What I've done|

Nicola Askham and I recorded this pre-lockdown. We only finally found time to publish it now! It is the first of five webinars taking you from the Business Case for Data Governance, through the development and operationalisation of a data strategy, and finishing on how to make Data as an asset sustainable. Data as your GPS https://datapromedia.wistia.com/medias/6kt27nnc6p The next one 'How to create a pragmatic data strategy' will be a slightly different format, but hopefully just as informative. Due to be released end August 2020.

Data Governance Network – Maturity assessment

By |2020-07-24T10:54:26+01:00July 24th, 2020|What I've done|

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

By |2020-07-22T11:33:37+01:00July 22nd, 2020|What I've done|

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 :) 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.

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