The data management caterpillar and the management information butterfly
Our colleagues in the Strategic Reporting team are creating some great dashboards about the university’s staff population, based on the work we’ve done with them to provide data via the data warehouse. These dashboards have been favourably received by several executive-level boards. It’s good to see the investment in the data warehouse showing its value.
Just as importantly, this work has also delivered much that’s non-tangible but really valuable, including a better understanding of the data for BI analysts as well as the end-users of their work, and increased confidence levels in the data and associated reports.
This work is the output of the close partnership between Enterprise Architecture and the Strategic Reporting team, which I wrote about earlier this year:
While we’re presenting to these boards, we’re also including a message about the layers of data management that go into the production of this trustworthy and accurate information. We’re using the metaphor of the data management caterpillar, which no-one really wants to know about, that eventually transforms into the beautiful butterfly of management information that gives the business the insights they’ve been asking for.
It’s a great metaphor and I want to take this opportunity to credit the person who came up with the idea. It’s from a LinkedIn post earlier this year by Neil Burge. Have a read at the URL below; it’s nice and short.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7019181298099396608/
(To avoid any doubt, I should probably note that, as far as I know, Neil has no links with the University of Edinburgh, and this post is not an endorsement or recommendation for any course or product from Neil’s company. )
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