By now, BI architects know to anticipate that recent technology advances in hardware and architecture of vendor products have the potential to flood their landscape with novel and even little-understood sources of data in volumes that they might be unprepared to absorb. But adapting a company’s business intelligence and data warehouse solutions to accommodate the new data is just the beginning of the work ahead.
Many companies are struggling to integrate a broad range of data in both their traditional data processing platforms and their business analytics processes. Companies working to manage the dizzying acceleration of data sources and volume they are exposed to are considering whether they have a permanent place in their IT departments for an individual tasked with seeking out, understanding, and curating the oceans of internal and external data content under their aegis. They are asking themselves, “Do we need a data ombudsman?”
In asking this question, we must first note that we are talking about something besides the traditional roles associated with data governance at an organisation. This role is different from a data steward, typically someone in the business or who works closely with the business users of the data and whose work is focused on the granular data elements, their definition, currency and consistency of use across venues, and business rules that concern them. It is also different from a data curator, typically someone in IT whose work focuses on how the data is conveyed, transformed, stored, and secured.
Instead, this new class of data functionary envisions an individual or even a small-but-agile team assigned a higher level of activity, one invested with the responsibility for macroscopic architectural decisions regarding data as a organisation-wide asset. These would be individuals capable of rapidly identifying, understanding, and envisioning the place of candidate data in the data warehouse, then articulating that data vision and transitioning it to project teams to actualise.
Without question the Data Ombudsman must report directly to or at least matrix into the organisation’s Data Governance Board. Yet she would hold a place of significant influence in her unique position situated between the business’s demand for the anticipated benefits of new data sources and the need to manage both the data itself and the appropriate IT processes for its evaluation, integration, and deployment. The role would also demand someone able to advocate effectively for both sides of that dynamic to propose data solutions that support the organisation’s best interests and most effective operation.
As companies embracing both wider and deeper sources of internal and external data come to understand the magnitude of the work ahead of them to translate raw data into valuable decision-enabling information, we anticipate the advent of the data ombudsman role as a key player in delivering the decision-making value of that data.
DataHub Writer: Douglas R. Briggs
Mr. Briggs has been active in the fields of Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence for the entirety of his 17-year career. He was responsible for the early adoption and promulgation of BI at one of the world’s largest consumer product companies and developed their initial BI competency centre. He has consulted with numerous other companies about effective BI practices. He holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College (Mass)..
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