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7 Productivity Tools for the Innovative Data Quality Leader
Dylan Jones, Founder, Data Quality
Pro
Every leader needs a helping hand. These tools have
been proven to deliver a wide range of benefits for
both short-term, project based activities or those
longer-term, more strategic aspirations.
They have been selected for the following reasons:
Value - The Web-based SaaS (software as a
service) model means costs are low so no need for a
lengthy procurement process, they also provide great
benefits
Accessible - The benefit of internet hosting
means there are no IT rollout headaches or
connectivity issues
Simple - The training for these tools can be
achieved in at most one or two hours, in most cases
it is literally minutes
Innovative - They will help you consider new
methods for collaborating, communicating and
coordinating data quality activities within your
organization
Productive - These tools will help you and
your team get more tasks done, in less time,
essential for the cash-strapped, results-focused
data quality leader
1. Basecamp
Basecamp is the most useful Web application I have
discovered for managing projects, especially with
distributed teams. Don't let the simplicity of this
tool fool you. I recently implemented Basecamp for a
data migration project that had over 50 staff
collaborating effectively across four time zones.
The core features include task assignments,
messaging, milestone management, time allocation,
file management, write boards (an online notepad),
and an interactive discussion manager. If you are
leading a data quality project then it will tick
many boxes, and the pricing structure means it is
affordable by most organizations.
Power Tips:
With the write board feature you can embed
Web-based database forms from DabbleDB (see below).
I find this a very useful method of logging data
quality issues and risks, as it keeps all the data
within the Basecamp user experience.
The time tracking feature is useful for
calculating the costs incurred by your teamuseful
for demonstrating value to stakeholders.
Subscribing to RSS feeds gives an instant view of
progress across all your projects.
2. DabbleDB
The easiest way to explain DabbleDB is that it is
the equivalent of Microsoft Access for the Web (but
so much more). You can build complete database
applications, literally in minutes, with the
advantage of being Web-based so they are shareable
across your entire business. No need to worry about
IT installations, steep learning curves, or lengthy
procurement processes, it is so simple, accessible,
and cheap that it really is a no-brainer if you're
looking to consolidate all your project spreadsheets
and metadata into one location.
Power Tips:
Expose forms to the Web. This is a great way to
create a simple defect management or feedback system
that can be embedded on an intranet page, shared via
email link, embedded within Basecamp, etc.
There is a basic but useful set of widgets for
displaying results on charts or maps, a great way to
visually observe defects raised per month,
outstanding defects per team member, etc.
3. Mailchimp
MailChimp is probably the simplest email
distribution service available, and most important,
it has an auto-responder feature. Basically, an
auto-responder is useful for sending out a sequence
of pre-created emails whenever a user signs up for
some information. You see this a lot when you
subscribe to a product webinar or any offer marketed
on the Internet.
What has this got to do with data quality?
The biggest challenge faced by the data quality
evangelist is education and communication. People
simply don't understand the value of data quality so
tools like MailChimp will help you manage the
distribution of relevant information to an
interested audience.
Consider the business line manager who has attended
an internal data quality presentation and wants to
find out more. Rather than bombarding them with
countless charts, surveys, reports, white papers,
and articles, you can explain that by adding their
email address to the "Management Education" list
they will receive a weekly, fact-based piece of
information explaining the value of data quality.
The beauty is that once you've created the sequence
of emails, MailChimp does the rest.
It's an excellent tool for promoting wider adoption
of data quality, as you can also post out monthly
achievements and lessons you learn along the way.
Power Tips:
Use the auto-responder feature to create an
automated training curriculum, "drip-feeding" tips,
and techniques every week to those interested in
data quality.
Use the statistical analysis tools to observe
which type of audience is most interested in the
topic, and can help you identify what parts of the
business to focus your efforts on.
4. SurveyMonkey
What do people really think about quality of data in
your business? Using SurveyMonkey you can gather
accurate feedback from across your organization on
any number of data quality related topics. I used
this approach once to gather anecdotal evidence for
why the data entry quality was so poor. The results
added a completely different dimension to the
traditional data quality assessment process. The
system users felt like they finally had a voice and
we were able to create a compelling case for action,
because the surveys were so rich with feedback.
Power Tips:
Surveys can be gathered anonymously or by person
so use this responsibly but you can include custom
data with the person's details. So if you know the
role or a particular application that a user is
connected with, then you can link customer feedback
metrics to this custom data.
Allows you to observe whether certain systems
create low morale amongst data entry workers, or
whether different management types have strong
opinions towards data quality, etc.
5. SocialCast
Think "Twitter behind the Corporate Firewall."
SocialCast allows you to share ideas, questions,
answers, status updates and links with everyone, or
select groups of employees. If you spend any amount
of time on Twitter you can observe how powerful a
medium this can be for spreading
data quality
awareness. You can now have the same benefits, but
in a far more private and controlled environment.
Power Tips:
By creating streams you can group like-minded
individuals together to create some focus. For
example, you may have multiple management reporting
units across your company by linking them into one
stream.
You can get them to start sharing their data
quality issues, improvements that worked, products
they use, training materials they possess, etc.
The search and filter features are great for
listening into common issues and finding scarce
resources.
The business intelligence tool can be used to
provide accurate stats to help you measure the
growth of your data quality community across the
organization.
6. Evernote
Evernote allows you to record absolutely anything
that you spot in your daily work activities. In a
corporate setting I see lots of examples of how this
can play out:
Call-center worker has to complete a customer
record, but the system forces her to enter
irrelevant information. Create an Evernote snapshot.
Manager is trying to understand a sales report and
frequently misinterprets the information. Create an
Evernote snapshot.
ETL support analyst spots some defective data
flowing through a complex transformation. Create an
Evernote snapshot.
But why can't we just log these kinds of issues to a
standard fault
management system?
Because they don't exist. There are countless data
quality issues observed every day by knowledge
workers and most go unrecorded. Using a product like
Evernote means that you can grab audio, image clips,
text - any media you like and store relevant
metadata (tags) and notes connected with the issue.
These can be relayed to a data quality team to get a
much more realistic footprint of the types of data
and information quality issues workers are
experiencing.
I can see lots of uses for this, because data
defects can be quite abstract, they often don't fit
into a neat fault report, so we need the "fuzzy"
record of our experiences that this kind of tool
permits.
Power Tips:
Evernote interprets visual images containing text
and translates this into a digital note.
Audio feature means abstract issues and user
feedback can be gathered.
7. Highrise
Highrise is a simple, contact relationship
management system that helps you manage contacts,
tasks, projects, and discussions. I've used this on
projects in the past, because it helps you manage
communication with all the stakeholders, workers,
team members, third party suppliers, and everyone
else that can get involved on a data quality
project.
If your goal is to promote data quality across an
organization, then I think this tool has some
obvious benefits. For example, by segmenting your
contacts and integrating with MailChimp you can post
relevant updates for specific demographics
internally, managers get management related
information, techies get tips and techniques, etc.
Power Tips:
Use the Cases feature to link messages and
contacts to specific projects or focus points. This
helps you track streams of information more easily.
Tags are an excellent way to segment your contacts
and "market" specific messages relating to your
projects.
In Summary
The role of the data quality leader
can be a
challenging and complex one. You increasingly need
to take on the role of communicator, educator,
mediator, coordinator, peace-maker, collaborator,
and facilitator.
These tools can help you across all these roles, but
I don't advise you to rush out and sign up for them
all.
First think about your tactical initiatives and what
the improvement projects in your pipeline are. How
can these tools help you improve coordination and
collaboration on projects?
Next, think strategic: How can these tools help you
promote wider education and adoption of the data
quality message?
---Source: Dylan Jones is the Founder
of Data Quality Pro (www.dataqualitypro.com).
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