Analysts run on “maker’s schedule”
Most of those versatile researchers of the data-driven world — the business analysts, creative analysts, or even cowboy analysts — probably run on a different schedule from their managers. Paul Graham’s latest essay compares “manager’s schedule” and “maker’s schedule.” I’m no analyst, just a writer. But the more analysts I meet, the more I find [...]
Mark Madsen’s three indications of uselessness
If you dropped into an organization, how could you tell who did real work? Mark Madsen has developed clues. Most people probably know him as the insightful and entertaining creator of “Clues to the Future of Business Intelligence” and more recently of “Using Open Source BI in the Real World.” But when he’s not on [...]
Data lurking in the elevator
The TDWI San Diego conference opens in just 10 weeks, and some people are already thinking about who they hope to avoid. “We’re sure not going to hide out in a stairway,” one promises but has no other strategy so far. Speculation about who’d win should it come down to a good old bar fight, [...]
Pulling on the root of bad business writing
In his fine weblog Startup Diaries, David Silverman takes a good stab at answering the eternal question: Why is most business writing so bad? He writes, for example, “I blame this on an educational system that rewards length over clarity. When you get tick marks for bulls’ eyes — and no demerits for the number [...]
Don’t call me “non-technical”
When I’ve referred to “non-technical” users, I’ve always meant just about anyone working far away IT. Well, based on research by Lyzasoft’s CEO Scott Davis, I think I’d better be careful with that definition. My concern is not for IT people. It’s for the “quants” in finance, marketing, accounting and operations who may not write [...]
Dings to talk about when offshoring data
Restless minds will want to know what Asian manufacture of furniture, clothes, electronics and other goods has to do with business intelligence. A globe-trotting industrial engineer who’d rather not be named has been telling me about different perceptions of quality among nationalities. He works on contract to American companies to ensure that product quality lives [...]
BI culture: not a science, more like an art form
At 8 o’clock Monday morning, a few hundred attendees at TDWI conference in Chicago will hear the organization’s former education director Dave Wells give his keynote, “People First: Creating a Business Intelligence Culture.” He’ll say something startling: there’s much more to BI than data.
Sierra Club’s global cooling
The Sierra Club, once a leader in bottom-up organization, is about to flip over and assume a top-down orientation–in fact, one much like the big corporations it usually opposes.
The blessing
The story from Dave Wells, former TDWI education director, is that Seattle University’s big cheeses—all Jesuits—met to talk about the university’s new BI project. Dave said the provost had been listening throughout, and at the end endorsed the project. “I appreciate that we all pray,” said the provost. “But at times we might need help [...]
“Huge culture class” over school metrics
A new source in the education-testing business tells me about a “huge cultural collision” between the “sensate, feeling types and the new racetrack bettor types.”
« go back — keep looking »