tools

Data managers should emulate good librarians

April 15, 2011

Haul away the hardware, peel off the software, rinse off the mystique and you see what the people who manage data really are: They’re librarians. That’s the role IT workers should model themselves on. I’m not talking about technology. I don’t care what tools anyone uses. Whether we’re talking about bound paper known as “books” [...]

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Project management tool threatens “central planners”

January 11, 2011

In the rebellion of the business users, in which top-down gets tipped over, even stodgy old project management is coming alive. “Most of the decisions made in project management,” says Liquid Planner CEO Charles Seybold, “happen under the surface.” He’s now trying to win over the people who work on projects but haven’t run many [...]

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New data analysts and teenage love

January 4, 2011

Search all the business literature you can and you’ll never find data analysis compared to romantic love. But, hey, why not? Love’s trajectories might hint at what the business world’s newly enabled generation of data analysts can expect. These data analysts tend to be independent, are often creative and at least partly self-trained. They’re strapped [...]

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How to analyze unfamiliar data: circle, dive, and riff

October 18, 2010

When you come face to face with unfamiliar data, how do you proceed? How do you avoid sending you and your shiny “speed of thought” tool slamming into a dead end? Dan Murray’s got a routine — and he’s also got certain music and right-brained books to go along. Dan’s first rule: “Don’t pre-think.” It’s [...]

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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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Lyzasoft says “power to the people” with free version

May 3, 2010

It was International Workers’ Day on Saturday and the official release day of Lyzasoft’s latest product: its foray into “free.” It’s a good way to say “power to the people.” Some people associate that slogan with protests and even violence. But I think the best paths to power usually involve well-analyzed data, whether in public [...]

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How Lyza stole the show at TDWI Las Vegas

March 11, 2010

Lyzasoft wasn’t among the 38 exhibitors in TDWI’s Las Vegas exhibit hall. Lyzasoft sponsored no part of the lunch, and they hired no stage magician. But their buzz was the loudest I heard over the event’s five days. Others may have heard different buzz because buzz varies. Business intelligence elites gather every year at TDWI’s [...]

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Tools and those who enable their misuse

February 1, 2010

To get a data architect I know worked up, just ask him about how customers end up buying the wrong tools. How about sales people who push federation tools on those who actually need data warehouses? “It all sounds extremely sexy,” says my source, who works for a major business intelligence vendor and whom I [...]

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Hoping for Citizen 2.0

January 6, 2010

I like the sound of Government 2.0: Collaborate with citizens online and you can change government from a sewer-dwelling raccoon into a purring housecat. Social media lets us try for a kind of politics that was impossible until now. I hope for great results. For many, Government 2.0, or “collaborative government,” will mean just “friending” [...]

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Stalking the why: selling visual analysis

October 21, 2009

How do you show the value of visual analysis to business people? Dan Murray can show it in demos, but he keeps looking for the “magic dust” that explains in a snap. He sees visual analysis as a key part of low-cost business intelligence at small- and medium-sized organizations — and he’s set out with [...]

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