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New hope for the “single version of the truth”

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What will it be, a “single version of the truth” or unabated proliferation of ad hoc data? It’s a chronic dilemma, and its resolution is crucial to big-box business intelligence. Frank Buytendijk’s new book, his second one, offers a way out of this pickle.

In Dealing with Dilemmas: Where Business Analytics Fall Short (John Wiley & Sons; 2010), Buytendijk — pronounced BOW-ten-dek, according to a Dutch friend of mine — argues that the usual this-or-that, you-or-me, and now-or-then dilemmas may not be the tough choices that they seem to be.

I had known Frank Buytendijk from his two TDWI keynotes, both of which broke down old fences.… Read the rest “New hope for the “single version of the truth””

Librarian looks up a real “solution”

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A friend of mine runs the library at a small university near me, and she hears pitches all the time for neat technology. I suppose she doesn’t hear much about BI, just library stuff, but let’s not get hung up on the details.

To keep her priorities straight, she keeps a “ruthless focus” on the library’s real needs. She keeps Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in mind, the theory that people satisfy needs in order, from basic needs like breathing all the way up to “self actualization.”

She tells about one upstate New York librarian she heard about back when libraries were first urged to go online.… Read the rest “Librarian looks up a real “solution””

Analyst: creative or canned?

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I picked up the term “creative analyst” in late June on the phone with Lyzasoft CEO Scott Davis. But what does he mean?

He described one analyst he’s known of. This guy arrived at a new job with strong recommendations for his ability to tear apart a dataset. He could slice, dice, build related charts and pivot tables — but only with canned data. That is, data someone had given him. This analyst struggled with synthesis — blending separate datasets, for example, or making a formula to derive values, or simply experimenting and asking unforeseen questions.

The ability to improvise and create something new is a “prime differentiator” among analysts, says Davis.… Read the rest “Analyst: creative or canned?”