June 2010

Feature lists miss the point

June 29, 2010

So many people who should know better seem to miss the point when they mention Tableau. Why? I asked BI veteran Stephen McDaniel for his thoughts — which he gave, but then went on to suggest an almost unheard of challenge: a data analysis face-off among vendors. Consider this description by a BI analyst: “Tableau [...]

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A reason for BI failure: knowledge requires a knower

June 15, 2010

What can explain business intelligence’s poor adoption rate? Are tools not easy to use? Or is there a deeper reason? A book from 2000, The Social Life of Information by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid, suggests that BI designers have neglected basic human needs. Jack Vinson, of Knowledge Jolt with Jack fame, has just [...]

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Self-tracking: “If man were meant to fly” and other objections

June 7, 2010

Self tracking for performance has a place on the map now thanks to the May 2 New York Times Magazine article by Gary Wolf. But along with praise and interest, “The Data-Driven Life” also drew harsh, skeptical reactions. Many of the objections were of the “if man were meant to fly, he’d have wings” variety. [...]

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