One of the hardest parts of running a data analytics program inside a large organization is governing data and reports. It’s simply too easy for the definition of core data elements and metrics to get out of sync and reports to contain conflicting information.

Angie Davis has straddled both the business and IT worlds for more than 20 years. She served as a business analyst in several organizations before switching to the information technology side of the business where she ran analytics teams, first at JD Irving for six years and more recently at Brookfield Renewable where she is an IT director. Angie has a degree in mathematics and electrical engineering from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Key takeaways:

• Data quality is still a big challenge for organizations.
• Measuring the correct indicators for business and getting timely metrics are still a problem.
• The business needs to partner with IT to take on more responsibility for data.
  
• It will help if there is buy-in at the top level and grass-roots development at the bottom level to sustain a business/IT collaboration project.
• The data lead should be a full-time role, in the beginning, to help develop seamless communication channels between the business and IT.
• ITIL change management process should be used to ensure that there is coordination between development and production.
• Business/IT should work as a team in applying governance to new data sources.
• Critical applications that are used by multiple users require more fine-tuning in the source systems to ensure data quality.
• Organizations should strive to maintain a business glossary and make it accessible so that everyone is on the same page when talking about a data element.
• Watermarking helps put a seal of approval on reports and dashboards, making the data trustworthy for business decisions.
• You can skip the watermarking process when doing a one-off analysis to save time and resources.
• Robotic process automation is a process that helps in moving data and saving precious IT resources.
• IT should sit together with the business in a room and help them create reports—this step aids in promoting a culture of self-service analytics.