Why You Need a Director of Data Preparation

In the fall of 2017 I watched a brilliant Gartner Webinar by Joao Tapadinhas titled; “Preparing Your Organization for Modern BI and Analytics”. This webinar resonated with me because it provided a tangible explanation for what I was experiencing and has helped me to articulate to others.

In summary Joao pointed out that;

Legacy BI and Analytics tools and data infrastructure provided sufficient insight at the time for the business, like what happened last month (descriptive analytics). A big gap arose as business needs evolved beyond needing to know what happened last month to what is happening right now and what will happen next (predictive analytics), and what business decisions and actions should we take (prescriptive analytics). Such questions and even more in depth questions could not be answered with legacy tools and data infrastructure. As a result business users took it upon themselves to bridge that gap by investing in tools and data marts with or without IT involvement just to meet a need. Many resolved to becoming masters in Microsoft Excel, Access, SQL to address a variety of business challenges. Unfortunately many of those tools and data marts and the approach taken were not scale-able and agile, neither did they facilitate easy collaboration and sharing. They didn’t quite bridge the gap. Today, there are a plethora of new tools and data infrastructures that have arisen to address these specific needs. These new tools have also given rise to the need for new roles that are required to drive adoption, navigate transformation, and ensure governance.

I’d like to highlight one such role that I believe is necessary; Director of (Self-Service) Data Preparation, reporting to the Chief Data Officer (CDO). Here are three core job functions of this leader;

1. Procure a Self-Service Data Prep Platform

The Business is inundated with high and increasing volumes of information that they can no longer manage with legacy tools to complete their work. Employees need to be empowered with a data prep platform that will help them access a wide variety of information types, cleanse the data, and share it with others. It is the job of the Director to engage with business leaders, gather their current and predicted business requirements and select the right Data Prep Platform that will meet the identified needs.

2. Strategic Deployment of Data Prep Platform

Once the Data Prep Platform has been selected the Director must deploy it strategically across the enterprise to drive adoption, create a Data Market place, and measure Return On Investment. Adoption of the platform is in alignment with business success. The more employees using and collaborating on the platform the more business needs will be met. The Data Market place speaks to the curation of trusted datasets created, shared, and vetted by the business. Eliminates duplication of efforts and fosters trust in data that many have verified. Measuring Return on Investment (ROI) helps to justify the investment in the Data Prep Platform and any further investments. ROI is easily measured by time and money saved before and after Data Prep.

3. Integrate Data Prep within an Enterprise Information Management Strategy

Last and certainly not least, the Director must ensure that data ethics, governance, and security are an integrated and respected part of the Data Prep Platform in the context of an Enterprise Information Strategy. This can be accomplished by working in tandem with the Data Governance lead and any other leader reporting to the CDO. Tactical approaches include leveraging group controls in the Data Prep platform, role-based access, active directory integration, permissions for sharing data, native redaction, and other best practices for working with data.