Source: Workopolis – Keywords data analyst.

The process of performing a variety of tests on a system to explore functionality or to identify problems. System testing is usually required before and after a system is put in place. A series of systematic procedures are referred to while testing is being performed. These procedures tell the tester how the system should perform and where common mistakes may be found. Testers usually try to “break the system” by entering data that may cause the system to malfunction or return incorrect information. For example, a tester may put in a city in a search engine designed to only accept states, to see how the system will respond to the incorrect input.

Source; BusinessDictionary.com

Data stewardship involves taking responsibility for data elements for their end-to-end usage across the enterprise. Data stewardship does not involve just a single role but includes a network of personnel with accountabilities for ensuring that all aspects of an effective information development program are being accomplished.

Data Stewardship is an ongoing activity that spans all competencies of all individuals within an organisation. Read More

A data steward ensures that each assigned data element:

1. Has clear and unambiguous data element definition.
2. Does not conflict with other data elements in the metadata registry (removes duplicates, overlap etc.)
3. Has clear enumerated value definitions if it is of type Code.
4. Is still being used (remove unused data elements)
5. Is being used consistently in various computer systems
6. Has adequate documentation on appropriate usage and notes
7. Documents the origin and sources of authority on each metadata element

Benefits of Data Stewardship

1. Consistent use of data management resource
2. Easy mapping of data between computer systems and exchange documents
3. Lower costs associated with migration to Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

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Search through rows of data, realizing patterns. Build new reports that answer unusual end-user questions and modifying existing canned reports. Modify reports to correct longstanding problems. Research and document data requirements and listen intently to a manager, translating what He/she says into data fields.

Design queries for different legacy databases using multiple BI packages. Present reports to customers that elicit good questions and no doubts

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To insure decision makers understand the insights, it is important that information is presented and packaged in most appropriate way. Good communication is kept simple and focused on the message user needs to receive. Instead we either we provide too much detail or distract people’s attention by using hard to read three dimensional graphs, overdo emphasis colors (e.g bright red, yellow, orange, or green) and use too many different varieties of graphs, which make comparative analyses.[1]

Our Point of view: In our experience of providing information to decision makers we always encouraged them to draft a format in which they would like to see the information. On the basis of that we have frequently provided them the data analyses and business intelligence reports using tools like crystal Reports and Sql Reporting services.

Source;

1- Moving from Data to insights by Bernard, published in Management – Certified Management Account. june / July 2009

data mart approach’s focus on a particular subject or department to help management make strategic decision about their business is similar to Evidenced based Management’s approach’s defining the objective and information needs, based on that collecting data and analyzing and turning that data into insights and presenting that into insights.

Instead of focusing on collecting everything that is easily measured and counted, organization’s need to be more systematic and selective about the information they are gathering.[1]

Source:

1- Moving from data to insights by Bernard Marr – Management by Certified Management Accounting Canada -June/July 2009.

In this step the focus should be on manger’s information needs identification and objective of these. In other words organization’s information needs to be highly selective.

Identify strategic objectives/information needs – here we link the data we collect to most important drivers of value and performance. This insures that analytics we generate (a) are relevant to organization’s competitive positioning, (b) support its greatest information needs, and are not (c) wasted on irrelevant information. [1]

Identify who has the information needs

Here it is important to target audience (information customers)
Information customers can be groups of people such as the board of directors, senior managers, the HR and marketing departments, or a single person.[1]

Clarify what questions they want answered

The aim is to ensure that analytics provide the knowledge that will enable the recipients to make most appropriate and focused business decision.

Clarify what decision needs to be taken
We need to clearly identify any important decisions the data support.

Our point of view: the above steps are true for business intelligence and data mart development.

Source:

1 – Intelligence required – moving from data to insights by Bernard Marr – Management by CMA

Through Evidence-Based management, organizations explicitly use evidence (the best and most appropriate information) to guide the decision-making process to extract maximum value and competitive advantage from their data and information. According to Stanford University Professor Robert Sutton EBM is simple idea: It just means finding the best evidence that you can, facing those facts, and acting on those facts – rather than doing what everyone else does, what you have always done, or what you thought was true. We like this statement.

Five steps towards evidence-based management (EBM)

Step 1: Defining objective and information needs.
Step2: Based on step 1 collecting data.
Step 3: Analyzing data – focus on turning data into relevant insights.
Step 4: Presenting information – focusing on communicating the information and insights to business decision makers – extracted in step 3.
Step 5: Making evidence based decision concerned with Turing information into knowledge and decisions.

Role of information technology in EBM

IT and Business intelligence (BI) plays an important role in Evidence-Based management. Right steps should be taken and most important is common sense and something we do intuitively, instead of believing that state-of-the art Business Intelligence infrastructure will resolve all the problems.

Our point of view: we strongly agree with the evidence-based management techniques presented above, especially Professor Robert Sutton’s statement that finding the best evidence, facing those facts, and acting on those facts.