To Make Data Analytics Sort of Work: Attention to Detail
March 10, 2017
I read “The Much-Needed Business Facet for Modern Data Integration.” The write up presents some useful information. Not many of the “go fast and break things” crowd will relate to some of the ideas and suggestions, but I found the article refreshing.
What does one do to make modern data centric activities sort of work? The answers are ones that I have found many more youthful wizards often elect to ignore.
Here they are:
- Do data preparation. Yikes. Normalization of data. I have fielded this question in the past, “Who has time for that?” Answer: Too few, gentle reader. Too few.
- Profile the data. Another gasp. In my experience it is helpful to determine what data are actually germane to the goal. Think about the polls for the recent
- Create data libraries. Good idea. But it is much more fun to just recreate data sets. Very Zen like.
- Have rules which are now explained as “data governance.” The jargon does not change the need for editorial and data guidelines.
- Take a stab at data quality. This is another way of saying, “Clean up the data.” Even whiz bang modern systems are confused with differences like I.B.M and International Business Machines or numbers with decimal points in the incorrect place.
- Get colleagues in the game. This is a good idea, but in many organizations in which I have worked “team” is spelled “my bonus.”
Useful checklist. I fear that those who color unicorns will not like the dog work which accompanies implementing the ideas. That’s what makes search and content processing so darned interesting.
Stephen E Arnold, March 10, 2017
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