Making EIM Work for Business

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OCDQ Radio is a vendor-neutral podcast about data quality and its related disciplines, produced and hosted by Jim Harris.

During this episode, I discuss Enterprise Information Management (EIM) with John Ladley, the author of the excellent book Making EIM Work for Business, exploring what makes information management, not just useful, but valuable to the enterprise.

John Ladley is a business technology thought leader with 30 years of experience in improving organizations through the successful implementation of information systems.  He is a recognized authority in the use and implementation of business intelligence and enterprise information management.  John Ladley frequently writes and speaks on a variety of technology and enterprise information management topics.  His information management experience is balanced between strategic technology planning, project management, and, most important, the practical application of technology to business problems.

Popular OCDQ Radio Episodes

Clicking on the link will take you to the episode’s blog post:

  • Demystifying Data Science — Guest Melinda Thielbar, a Ph.D. Statistician, discusses what a data scientist does and provides a straightforward explanation of key concepts such as signal-to-noise ratio, uncertainty, and correlation.
  • Data Quality and Big Data — Guest Tom Redman (aka the “Data Doc”) discusses Data Quality and Big Data, including if data quality matters less in larger data sets, and if statistical outliers represent business insights or data quality issues.
  • Demystifying Master Data Management — Guest John Owens explains the three types of data (Transaction, Domain, Master), the four master data entities (Party, Product, Location, Asset), and the Party-Role Relationship, which is where we find many of the terms commonly used to describe the Party master data entity (e.g., Customer, Supplier, Employee).
  • Data Governance Star Wars — Special Guests Rob Karel and Gwen Thomas joined this extended, and Star Wars themed, discussion about how to balance bureaucracy and business agility during the execution of data governance programs.
  • The Johari Window of Data Quality — Guest Martin Doyle discusses helping people better understand their data and assess its business impacts, not just the negative impacts of bad data quality, but also the positive impacts of good data quality.
  • Studying Data Quality — Guest Gordon Hamilton discusses the key concepts from recommended data quality books, including those which he has implemented in his career as a data quality practitioner.

Two Weeks Before Christmas

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OCDQ Radio is a vendor-neutral podcast about data quality and its related disciplines, produced and hosted by Jim Harris.

Season’s Greetings fellow data management enthusiasts and welcome to a special holiday-themed episode of OCDQ Radio.

With the Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Festivus seasons now upon us, I revisited my ‘Twas Two Weeks Before Christmas blog post from 2009, which is based on the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas.  During this brief podcast, I perform a recital.

The entire OCDQ Blog family wishes you and yours all the best during this holiday season and the coming new year.

Popular OCDQ Radio Episodes

Clicking on the link will take you to the episode’s blog post:

  • Demystifying Data Science — Guest Melinda Thielbar, a Ph.D. Statistician, discusses what a data scientist does and provides a straightforward explanation of key concepts such as signal-to-noise ratio, uncertainty, and correlation.
  • Data Quality and Big Data — Guest Tom Redman (aka the “Data Doc”) discusses Data Quality and Big Data, including if data quality matters less in larger data sets, and if statistical outliers represent business insights or data quality issues.
  • Demystifying Master Data Management — Guest John Owens explains the three types of data (Transaction, Domain, Master), the four master data entities (Party, Product, Location, Asset), and the Party-Role Relationship, which is where we find many of the terms commonly used to describe the Party master data entity (e.g., Customer, Supplier, Employee).
  • Data Governance Star Wars — Special Guests Rob Karel and Gwen Thomas joined this extended, and Star Wars themed, discussion about how to balance bureaucracy and business agility during the execution of data governance programs.
  • The Johari Window of Data Quality — Guest Martin Doyle discusses helping people better understand their data and assess its business impacts, not just the negative impacts of bad data quality, but also the positive impacts of good data quality.
  • Studying Data Quality — Guest Gordon Hamilton discusses the key concepts from recommended data quality books, including those which he has implemented in his career as a data quality practitioner.

The Fall Back Recap Show

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OCDQ Radio is a vendor-neutral podcast about data quality and its related disciplines, produced and hosted by Jim Harris.

On this episode, I celebrate the autumnal equinox by falling back to look at the Best of OCDQ Radio, including discussions about Data, Information, Business-IT Collaboration, Change Management, Big Analytics, Data Governance, and the Data Revolution.

Thank you for listening to OCDQ Radio.  Your listenership is deeply appreciated.

Special thanks to all OCDQ Radio guests.  If you missed any of their great appearances, check out the full episode list below.

Popular OCDQ Radio Episodes

Clicking on the link will take you to the episode’s blog post:

  • Demystifying Data Science — Guest Melinda Thielbar, a Ph.D. Statistician, discusses what a data scientist does and provides a straightforward explanation of key concepts such as signal-to-noise ratio, uncertainty, and correlation.
  • Data Quality and Big Data — Guest Tom Redman (aka the “Data Doc”) discusses Data Quality and Big Data, including if data quality matters less in larger data sets, and if statistical outliers represent business insights or data quality issues.
  • Demystifying Master Data Management — Guest John Owens explains the three types of data (Transaction, Domain, Master), the four master data entities (Party, Product, Location, Asset), and the Party-Role Relationship, which is where we find many of the terms commonly used to describe the Party master data entity (e.g., Customer, Supplier, Employee).
  • Data Governance Star Wars — Special Guests Rob Karel and Gwen Thomas joined this extended, and Star Wars themed, discussion about how to balance bureaucracy and business agility during the execution of data governance programs.
  • The Johari Window of Data Quality — Guest Martin Doyle discusses helping people better understand their data and assess its business impacts, not just the negative impacts of bad data quality, but also the positive impacts of good data quality.
  • Studying Data Quality — Guest Gordon Hamilton discusses the key concepts from recommended data quality books, including those which he has implemented in his career as a data quality practitioner.

The Blue Box of Information Quality

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OCDQ Radio is a vendor-neutral podcast about data quality and its related disciplines, produced and hosted by Jim Harris.

On this episode, Daragh O Brien and I discuss the Blue Box of Information Quality, which is much bigger on the inside, as well as using stories as an analytical tool and change management technique, and why we must never forget that “people are cool.”

Daragh O Brien is one of Ireland’s leading Information Quality and Governance practitioners.  After being born at a young age, Daragh has amassed a wealth of experience in quality information driven business change, from CRM Single View of Customer to Regulatory Compliance, to Governance and the taming of information assets to benefit the bottom line, manage risk, and ensure customer satisfaction.  Daragh O Brien is the Managing Director of Castlebridge Associates, one of Ireland’s leading consulting and training companies in the information quality and information governance space.

Daragh O Brien is a founding member and former Director of Publicity for the IAIDQ, which he is still actively involved with.  He was a member of the team that helped develop the Information Quality Certified Professional (IQCP) certification and he recently became the first person in Ireland to achieve this prestigious certification.

In 2008, Daragh O Brien was awarded a Fellowship of the Irish Computer Society for his work in developing and promoting standards of professionalism in Information Management and Governance.

Daragh O Brien is a regular conference presenter, trainer, blogger, and author with two industry reports published by Ark Group, the most recent of which is The Data Strategy and Governance Toolkit.

Popular OCDQ Radio Episodes

Clicking on the link will take you to the episode’s blog post:

  • Demystifying Data Science — Guest Melinda Thielbar, a Ph.D. Statistician, discusses what a data scientist does and provides a straightforward explanation of key concepts such as signal-to-noise ratio, uncertainty, and correlation.
  • Data Quality and Big Data — Guest Tom Redman (aka the “Data Doc”) discusses Data Quality and Big Data, including if data quality matters less in larger data sets, and if statistical outliers represent business insights or data quality issues.
  • Demystifying Master Data Management — Guest John Owens explains the three types of data (Transaction, Domain, Master), the four master data entities (Party, Product, Location, Asset), and the Party-Role Relationship, which is where we find many of the terms commonly used to describe the Party master data entity (e.g., Customer, Supplier, Employee).
  • Data Governance Star Wars — Special Guests Rob Karel and Gwen Thomas joined this extended, and Star Wars themed, discussion about how to balance bureaucracy and business agility during the execution of data governance programs.
  • The Johari Window of Data Quality — Guest Martin Doyle discusses helping people better understand their data and assess its business impacts, not just the negative impacts of bad data quality, but also the positive impacts of good data quality.
  • Studying Data Quality — Guest Gordon Hamilton discusses the key concepts from recommended data quality books, including those which he has implemented in his career as a data quality practitioner.

Good-Enough Data for Fast-Enough Decisions

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OCDQ Radio is a vendor-neutral podcast about data quality and its related disciplines, produced and hosted by Jim Harris.

On this episode, Julie Hunt and I discuss the intersection of data quality and business intelligence, especially the strategy of good-enough data for fast-enough decisions, a necessity for surviving and thriving in the constantly changing business world.

Julie Hunt is an accomplished software industry analyst and business technology strategist, providing market and competitive insights for software vendors.  Julie Hunt has the unique perspective of a hybrid, which means she has extensive experience in the technology, business, and customer/people-oriented aspects of creating, marketing and selling software.  Working in the B2B software industry for more than 25 years, she has hands-on experience for multiple solution spaces including data integration, business intelligence, analytics, content management, and collaboration.  She is also a member of the Boulder BI Brain Trust.

Julie Hunt regularly shares her insights about the software industry on Twitter as well as via her highly recommended blog.

Popular OCDQ Radio Episodes

Clicking on the link will take you to the episode’s blog post:

  • Demystifying Data Science — Guest Melinda Thielbar, a Ph.D. Statistician, discusses what a data scientist does and provides a straightforward explanation of key concepts such as signal-to-noise ratio, uncertainty, and correlation.
  • Data Quality and Big Data — Guest Tom Redman (aka the “Data Doc”) discusses Data Quality and Big Data, including if data quality matters less in larger data sets, and if statistical outliers represent business insights or data quality issues.
  • Demystifying Master Data Management — Guest John Owens explains the three types of data (Transaction, Domain, Master), the four master data entities (Party, Product, Location, Asset), and the Party-Role Relationship, which is where we find many of the terms commonly used to describe the Party master data entity (e.g., Customer, Supplier, Employee).
  • Data Governance Star Wars — Special Guests Rob Karel and Gwen Thomas joined this extended, and Star Wars themed, discussion about how to balance bureaucracy and business agility during the execution of data governance programs.
  • The Johari Window of Data Quality — Guest Martin Doyle discusses helping people better understand their data and assess its business impacts, not just the negative impacts of bad data quality, but also the positive impacts of good data quality.
  • Studying Data Quality — Guest Gordon Hamilton discusses the key concepts from recommended data quality books, including those which he has implemented in his career as a data quality practitioner.

Studying Data Quality

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OCDQ Radio is a vendor-neutral podcast about data quality and its related disciplines, produced and hosted by Jim Harris.

On this episode, Gordon Hamilton and I discuss data quality key concepts, including those which we have studied in some of our favorite data quality books, and more important, those which we have implemented in our careers as data quality practitioners.

Gordon Hamilton is a Data Quality and Data Warehouse professional, whose 30 years’ experience in the information business encompasses many industries, including government, legal, healthcare, insurance and financial.  Gordon was most recently engaged in the healthcare industry in British Columbia, Canada, where he continues to advise several health care authorities on data quality and business intelligence platform issues.

Gordon Hamilton’s passion is to bring together:

  • Exposure of business rules through data profiling as recommended by Ralph Kimball.

  • Monitoring business rules in the EQTL (Extract-Quality-Transform-Load) pipeline leading into the data warehouse.

  • Managing the business rule violations through systemic and specific solutions within the statistical process control framework of Shewhart/Deming.

  • Researching how to sustain data quality metrics as the “fit for purpose” definitions change faster than the information product process can easily adapt.

Gordon Hamilton’s moniker of DQStudent on Twitter hints at his plan to dovetail his Lean Six Sigma skills and experience with the data quality foundations to improve the manufacture of the “information product” in today’s organizations.  Gordon is a member of IAIDQ, TDWI, and ASQ, as well as an enthusiastic reader of anything pertaining to data.

Gordon Hamilton recently became an Information Quality Certified Professional (IQCP), via the IAIDQ certification program.

Recommended Data Quality Books

By no means a comprehensive list, and listed in no particular order whatsoever, the following books were either discussed during this OCDQ Radio episode, or are otherwise recommended for anyone looking to study data quality and its related disciplines:

Popular OCDQ Radio Episodes

Clicking on the link will take you to the episode’s blog post:

  • Demystifying Data Science — Guest Melinda Thielbar, a Ph.D. Statistician, discusses what a data scientist does and provides a straightforward explanation of key concepts such as signal-to-noise ratio, uncertainty, and correlation.
  • Data Quality and Big Data — Guest Tom Redman (aka the “Data Doc”) discusses Data Quality and Big Data, including if data quality matters less in larger data sets, and if statistical outliers represent business insights or data quality issues.
  • Demystifying Master Data Management — Guest John Owens explains the three types of data (Transaction, Domain, Master), the four master data entities (Party, Product, Location, Asset), and the Party-Role Relationship, which is where we find many of the terms commonly used to describe the Party master data entity (e.g., Customer, Supplier, Employee).
  • Data Governance Star Wars — Special Guests Rob Karel and Gwen Thomas joined this extended, and Star Wars themed, discussion about how to balance bureaucracy and business agility during the execution of data governance programs.
  • The Johari Window of Data Quality — Guest Martin Doyle discusses helping people better understand their data and assess its business impacts, not just the negative impacts of bad data quality, but also the positive impacts of good data quality.

DAMA International

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OCDQ Radio is a vendor-neutral podcast about data quality and its related disciplines, produced and hosted by Jim Harris.

DAMA International is a non-profit, vendor-independent, global association of technical and business professionals dedicated to advancing the concepts and practices of information and data management.

On this episode, special guest Loretta Mahon Smith provides an overview of the Data Management Body of Knowledge (DMBOK) and Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP) certification program.

Loretta Mahon Smith is a visionary and influential data management professional known for her consistent awareness of trends in the forefront of the industry.  Since 1983, she has worked in international financial services, and been actively involved in the maturity and growth of Information Architecture functions, specializing in Data Stewardship and Data Strategy Development.

Loretta Mahon Smith has been a member of DAMA for more than 10 years, with a lifetime membership to the DAMA National Capitol Region Chapter.  As President of the chapter she has the opportunity to help the Washington DC and Baltimore data management communities.  She serves the world community by her involvement on the DAMA International Board as VP of Communications.  She additionally volunteers her time to work on the ICCP Certification Council, most recently working on the development of the Zachman and Data Governance examinations.

In the past, Loretta has facilitated Special Interest Group sessions on Governance and Stewardship and presented Stewardship training at numerous local chapters for DAMA, IIBA, TDWI, and ACM, as well as major conferences including Project World (IIBA), INFO360 (AIIM), EDW (DAMA) and the IQ.  She earned Certified Computing Professional (CCP), Certified Business Intelligence Professional (CBIP), and Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP) designations, achieving mastery level proficiency rating in Data Warehousing, Data Management, and Data Quality.

Popular OCDQ Radio Episodes

Clicking on the link will take you to the episode’s blog post:

  • Demystifying Data Science — Guest Melinda Thielbar, a Ph.D. Statistician, discusses what a data scientist does and provides a straightforward explanation of key concepts such as signal-to-noise ratio, uncertainty, and correlation.
  • Data Quality and Big Data — Guest Tom Redman (aka the “Data Doc”) discusses Data Quality and Big Data, including if data quality matters less in larger data sets, and if statistical outliers represent business insights or data quality issues.
  • Demystifying Master Data Management — Guest John Owens explains the three types of data (Transaction, Domain, Master), the four master data entities (Party, Product, Location, Asset), and the Party-Role Relationship, which is where we find many of the terms commonly used to describe the Party master data entity (e.g., Customer, Supplier, Employee).
  • Data Governance Star Wars — Special Guests Rob Karel and Gwen Thomas joined this extended, and Star Wars themed, discussion about how to balance bureaucracy and business agility during the execution of data governance programs.
  • The Johari Window of Data Quality — Guest Martin Doyle discusses helping people better understand their data and assess its business impacts, not just the negative impacts of bad data quality, but also the positive impacts of good data quality.
  • Studying Data Quality — Guest Gordon Hamilton discusses the key concepts from recommended data quality books, including those which he has implemented in his career as a data quality practitioner.

The Higher Education of Data Quality

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OCDQ Radio is a vendor-neutral podcast about data quality and its related disciplines, produced and hosted by Jim Harris.

On this episode of OCDQ Radio, we leave the corporate world, where data quality and master data management is mostly focused on the challenges of managing data about customers, products, and revenue, and we get schooled in the higher education of data quality.  In other words, we discuss data quality and master data management in higher education, which is mostly focused on the challenges of managing data about students, courses, and tuition.

Our guest lecturer will be Mark Horseman, who has been working at the University of Saskatchewan for over 10 years and has been on the implementation team of many of the University’s enterprise software solutions.  Mark Horseman now works in Information Strategy and Analytics leveraging his knowledge to assist the University in managing its data quality challenges.

Follow Mark Horseman on Twitter and read his Eccentric Data Quality blog to hear more about the challenges faced by Mark on his quest (yes, it’s a quest) to improve Higher-Education Data Quality.

Popular OCDQ Radio Episodes

Clicking on the link will take you to the episode’s blog post:

  • Demystifying Data Science — Guest Melinda Thielbar, a Ph.D. Statistician, discusses what a data scientist does and provides a straightforward explanation of key concepts such as signal-to-noise ratio, uncertainty, and correlation.
  • Data Quality and Big Data — Guest Tom Redman (aka the “Data Doc”) discusses Data Quality and Big Data, including if data quality matters less in larger data sets, and if statistical outliers represent business insights or data quality issues.
  • Demystifying Master Data Management — Guest John Owens explains the three types of data (Transaction, Domain, Master), the four master data entities (Party, Product, Location, Asset), and the Party-Role Relationship, which is where we find many of the terms commonly used to describe the Party master data entity (e.g., Customer, Supplier, Employee).
  • Data Governance Star Wars — Special Guests Rob Karel and Gwen Thomas joined this extended, and Star Wars themed, discussion about how to balance bureaucracy and business agility during the execution of data governance programs.
  • The Johari Window of Data Quality — Guest Martin Doyle discusses helping people better understand their data and assess its business impacts, not just the negative impacts of bad data quality, but also the positive impacts of good data quality.
  • Studying Data Quality — Guest Gordon Hamilton discusses the key concepts from recommended data quality books, including those which he has implemented in his career as a data quality practitioner.

International Data Quality

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OCDQ Radio is a vendor-neutral podcast about data quality and its related disciplines, produced and hosted by Jim Harris.

On this episode of OCDQ Radio, I discuss the sometimes mysterious world of international name and address data quality, which is why I am pleased to be joined by, not an international man of mystery, but instead, an international man of data quality.

Graham Rhind is an acknowledged expert in the field of data quality.  Graham runs GRC Database Information, a consultancy company based in The Netherlands, where he researches postal code and addressing systems, collates international data, runs a busy postal link website, writes data management software, and maintains an online Data Quality Glossary.

Graham Rhind speaks regularly on the subject and is the author of four books on the topic of international data management, including The Global Source Book for Name and Address Data Management, which has been an invaluable resource for me.

On this episode of OCDQ Radio, Graham Rhind and I discusses the international challenges of postal address and person name data quality, including its implications for web forms and other data entry interfaces.

Popular OCDQ Radio Episodes

Clicking on the link will take you to the episode’s blog post:

  • Demystifying Data Science — Guest Melinda Thielbar, a Ph.D. Statistician, discusses what a data scientist does and provides a straightforward explanation of key concepts such as signal-to-noise ratio, uncertainty, and correlation.
  • Data Quality and Big Data — Guest Tom Redman (aka the “Data Doc”) discusses Data Quality and Big Data, including if data quality matters less in larger data sets, and if statistical outliers represent business insights or data quality issues.
  • Demystifying Master Data Management — Guest John Owens explains the three types of data (Transaction, Domain, Master), the four master data entities (Party, Product, Location, Asset), and the Party-Role Relationship, which is where we find many of the terms commonly used to describe the Party master data entity (e.g., Customer, Supplier, Employee).
  • Data Governance Star Wars — Special Guests Rob Karel and Gwen Thomas joined this extended, and Star Wars themed, discussion about how to balance bureaucracy and business agility during the execution of data governance programs.
  • The Johari Window of Data Quality — Guest Martin Doyle discusses helping people better understand their data and assess its business impacts, not just the negative impacts of bad data quality, but also the positive impacts of good data quality.
  • Studying Data Quality — Guest Gordon Hamilton discusses the key concepts from recommended data quality books, including those which he has implemented in his career as a data quality practitioner.

Big Data and Big Analytics

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OCDQ Radio is a vendor-neutral podcast about data quality and its related disciplines, produced and hosted by Jim Harris.

Jill Dyché is the Vice President of Thought Leadership and Education at DataFlux.  Jill’s role at DataFlux is a combination of best-practice expert, key client advisor and all-around thought leader.  She is responsible for industry education, key client strategies and market analysis in the areas of data governance, business intelligence, master data management and customer relationship management.  Jill is a regularly featured speaker and the author of several books.

Jill’s latest book, Customer Data Integration: Reaching a Single Version of the Truth (Wiley & Sons, 2006), was co-authored with Evan Levy and shows the business breakthroughs achieved with integrated customer data.

Dan Soceanu is the Director of Product Marketing and Sales Enablement at DataFlux.  Dan manages global field sales enablement and product marketing, including product messaging and marketing analysis.  Prior to joining DataFlux in 2008, Dan has held marketing, partnership and market research positions with Teradata, General Electric and FormScape, as well as data management positions in the Financial Services sector.

Dan received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, as well as earning his Master of Business Administration from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

On this episode of OCDQ Radio, Jill Dyché, Dan Soceanu, and I discuss the recent Pacific Northwest BI Summit, where the three core conference topics were Cloud, Collaboration, and Big Data, the last of which lead to a discussion about Big Analytics.

Popular OCDQ Radio Episodes

Clicking on the link will take you to the episode’s blog post:

  • Demystifying Data Science — Guest Melinda Thielbar, a Ph.D. Statistician, discusses what a data scientist does and provides a straightforward explanation of key concepts such as signal-to-noise ratio, uncertainty, and correlation.
  • Data Quality and Big Data — Guest Tom Redman (aka the “Data Doc”) discusses Data Quality and Big Data, including if data quality matters less in larger data sets, and if statistical outliers represent business insights or data quality issues.
  • Demystifying Master Data Management — Guest John Owens explains the three types of data (Transaction, Domain, Master), the four master data entities (Party, Product, Location, Asset), and the Party-Role Relationship, which is where we find many of the terms commonly used to describe the Party master data entity (e.g., Customer, Supplier, Employee).
  • Data Governance Star Wars — Special Guests Rob Karel and Gwen Thomas joined this extended, and Star Wars themed, discussion about how to balance bureaucracy and business agility during the execution of data governance programs.
  • The Johari Window of Data Quality — Guest Martin Doyle discusses helping people better understand their data and assess its business impacts, not just the negative impacts of bad data quality, but also the positive impacts of good data quality.
  • Studying Data Quality — Guest Gordon Hamilton discusses the key concepts from recommended data quality books, including those which he has implemented in his career as a data quality practitioner.

Organizing for Data Quality

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OCDQ Radio is a vendor-neutral podcast about data quality and its related disciplines, produced and hosted by Jim Harris.

Dr. Thomas C. Redman (the “Data Doc”) is an innovator, advisor and teacher.  He was first to extend quality principles to data and information in the late 80s.  Since then he has crystallized a body of tools, techniques, roadmaps and organizational insights that help organizations make order-of-magnitude improvements.

More recently Tom has developed keen insights into the nature of data and formulated the first comprehensive approach to “putting data to work.”  Taken together, these enable organizations to treat data as assets of virtually unlimited potential.

Tom has personally helped dozens of leaders and organizations better understand data and data quality and start their data programs.  He is a sought-after lecturer and the author of dozens of papers and four books.  The most recent, Data Driven: Profiting from Your Most Important Business Asset (Harvard Business Press, 2008) was a Library Journal best buy of 2008.

Prior to forming Navesink Consulting Group in 1996, Tom conceived the Data Quality Lab at AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1987 and led it until 1995.  Tom holds a Ph.D. in statistics from Florida State University.  He holds two patents.

On this episode of OCDQ Radio, Tom Redman and I discuss concepts from his Data Governance and Information Quality 2011 post-conference tutorial about organizing for data quality, which includes his call to action for your role in the data revolution.

Popular OCDQ Radio Episodes

Clicking on the link will take you to the episode’s blog post:

  • Demystifying Data Science — Guest Melinda Thielbar, a Ph.D. Statistician, discusses what a data scientist does and provides a straightforward explanation of key concepts such as signal-to-noise ratio, uncertainty, and correlation.
  • Data Quality and Big Data — Guest Tom Redman (aka the “Data Doc”) discusses Data Quality and Big Data, including if data quality matters less in larger data sets, and if statistical outliers represent business insights or data quality issues.
  • Demystifying Master Data Management — Guest John Owens explains the three types of data (Transaction, Domain, Master), the four master data entities (Party, Product, Location, Asset), and the Party-Role Relationship, which is where we find many of the terms commonly used to describe the Party master data entity (e.g., Customer, Supplier, Employee).
  • Data Governance Star Wars — Special Guests Rob Karel and Gwen Thomas joined this extended, and Star Wars themed, discussion about how to balance bureaucracy and business agility during the execution of data governance programs.
  • The Johari Window of Data Quality — Guest Martin Doyle discusses helping people better understand their data and assess its business impacts, not just the negative impacts of bad data quality, but also the positive impacts of good data quality.
  • Studying Data Quality — Guest Gordon Hamilton discusses the key concepts from recommended data quality books, including those which he has implemented in his career as a data quality practitioner.

The Age of the Platform

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OCDQ Radio is a vendor-neutral podcast about data quality and its related disciplines, produced and hosted by Jim Harris.

Phil Simon is the author of three books: The New Small (Motion, 2010), Why New Systems Fail (Cengage, 2010) and The Next Wave of Technologies (John Wiley & Sons, 2010).

A recognized technology expert, he consults companies on how to optimize their use of technology.  His contributions have been featured on The Globe and Mail, the American Express Open Forum, ComputerWorld, ZDNet, abcnews.com, forbes.com, The New York Times, ReadWriteWeb, and many other sites.

When not fiddling with computers, hosting podcasts, putting himself in comics, and writing, Phil enjoys English Bulldogs, tennis, golf, movies that hurt the brain, fantasy football, and progressive rock—which is also the subject of this episode’s book contest (see below).

On this episode of OCDQ Radio, Phil and I discuss his fourth book, The Age of the Platform, which will be published later this year thanks to the help of the generous contributions of people like you who are backing the book’s Kickstarter project.

Popular OCDQ Radio Episodes

Clicking on the link will take you to the episode’s blog post:

  • Demystifying Data Science — Guest Melinda Thielbar, a Ph.D. Statistician, discusses what a data scientist does and provides a straightforward explanation of key concepts such as signal-to-noise ratio, uncertainty, and correlation.
  • Data Quality and Big Data — Guest Tom Redman (aka the “Data Doc”) discusses Data Quality and Big Data, including if data quality matters less in larger data sets, and if statistical outliers represent business insights or data quality issues.
  • Demystifying Master Data Management — Guest John Owens explains the three types of data (Transaction, Domain, Master), the four master data entities (Party, Product, Location, Asset), and the Party-Role Relationship, which is where we find many of the terms commonly used to describe the Party master data entity (e.g., Customer, Supplier, Employee).
  • Data Governance Star Wars — Special Guests Rob Karel and Gwen Thomas joined this extended, and Star Wars themed, discussion about how to balance bureaucracy and business agility during the execution of data governance programs.
  • The Johari Window of Data Quality — Guest Martin Doyle discusses helping people better understand their data and assess its business impacts, not just the negative impacts of bad data quality, but also the positive impacts of good data quality.
  • Studying Data Quality — Guest Gordon Hamilton discusses the key concepts from recommended data quality books, including those which he has implemented in his career as a data quality practitioner.

Social Media Strategy

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OCDQ Radio is a vendor-neutral podcast about data quality and its related disciplines, produced and hosted by Jim Harris.

Effectively using social media within a business context is more art than science, which is why properly planning and executing a social media strategy is essential for organizations as well as individual professionals.

On this episode, I discuss social media strategy and content marketing with Crysta Anderson, a Social Media Strategist for IBM, who manages IBM InfoSphere’s social media presence, including the Mastering Data Management blog, the @IBMInitiate and @IBM_InfoSphere Twitter accounts, LinkedIn and other platforms.

Crysta Anderson also serves as a social media subject matter expert for IBM’s Information Management division.

Under Crysta’s execution, IBM Initiate has received numerous social media awards, including “Best Corporate Blog” from the Chicago Business Marketing Association, Marketing Sherpa’s 2010 Viral and Social Marketing Hall of Fame, and BtoB Magazine’s list of “Most Successful Online Social Networking Initiatives.”

Crysta graduated from the University of Chicago with a BA in Political Science and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University’s Medill School.  Learn more about Crysta Anderson on LinkedIn.

Popular OCDQ Radio Episodes

Clicking on the link will take you to the episode’s blog post:

  • Demystifying Data Science — Guest Melinda Thielbar, a Ph.D. Statistician, discusses what a data scientist does and provides a straightforward explanation of key concepts such as signal-to-noise ratio, uncertainty, and correlation.
  • Data Quality and Big Data — Guest Tom Redman (aka the “Data Doc”) discusses Data Quality and Big Data, including if data quality matters less in larger data sets, and if statistical outliers represent business insights or data quality issues.
  • Demystifying Master Data Management — Guest John Owens explains the three types of data (Transaction, Domain, Master), the four master data entities (Party, Product, Location, Asset), and the Party-Role Relationship, which is where we find many of the terms commonly used to describe the Party master data entity (e.g., Customer, Supplier, Employee).
  • Data Governance Star Wars — Special Guests Rob Karel and Gwen Thomas joined this extended, and Star Wars themed, discussion about how to balance bureaucracy and business agility during the execution of data governance programs.
  • The Johari Window of Data Quality — Guest Martin Doyle discusses helping people better understand their data and assess its business impacts, not just the negative impacts of bad data quality, but also the positive impacts of good data quality.
  • Studying Data Quality — Guest Gordon Hamilton discusses the key concepts from recommended data quality books, including those which he has implemented in his career as a data quality practitioner.

Data Profiling Early and Often

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OCDQ Radio is a vendor-neutral podcast about data quality and its related disciplines, produced and hosted by Jim Harris.

On this episode of OCDQ Radio, I discuss data profiling with James Standen, the founder and CEO of nModal Solutions Inc., the makers of Datamartist, which is a fast, easy to use, visual data profiling and transformation tool.

Before founding nModal, James had over 15 years experience in a broad range of roles involving data, ranging from building business intelligence solutions, creating data warehouses and a data warehouse competency center, through to working on data migration and ERP projects in large organizations.  You can learn more about and connect with James Standen on LinkedIn.

James thinks that while there is obviously good data and bad data, that often bad data is just misunderstood and can be coaxed away from the dark side if you know how to approach it.  He does recommend wearing the proper safety equipment however, and having the right tools.  For more of his wit and wisdom, follow Datamartist on Twitter, and read the Datamartist Blog.

Popular OCDQ Radio Episodes

Clicking on the link will take you to the episode’s blog post:

  • Demystifying Data Science — Guest Melinda Thielbar, a Ph.D. Statistician, discusses what a data scientist does and provides a straightforward explanation of key concepts such as signal-to-noise ratio, uncertainty, and correlation.
  • Data Quality and Big Data — Guest Tom Redman (aka the “Data Doc”) discusses Data Quality and Big Data, including if data quality matters less in larger data sets, and if statistical outliers represent business insights or data quality issues.
  • Demystifying Master Data Management — Guest John Owens explains the three types of data (Transaction, Domain, Master), the four master data entities (Party, Product, Location, Asset), and the Party-Role Relationship, which is where we find many of the terms commonly used to describe the Party master data entity (e.g., Customer, Supplier, Employee).
  • Data Governance Star Wars — Special Guests Rob Karel and Gwen Thomas joined this extended, and Star Wars themed, discussion about how to balance bureaucracy and business agility during the execution of data governance programs.
  • The Johari Window of Data Quality — Guest Martin Doyle discusses helping people better understand their data and assess its business impacts, not just the negative impacts of bad data quality, but also the positive impacts of good data quality.
  • Studying Data Quality — Guest Gordon Hamilton discusses the key concepts from recommended data quality books, including those which he has implemented in his career as a data quality practitioner.

Data Governance Star Wars

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OCDQ Radio is a vendor-neutral podcast about data quality and its related disciplines, produced and hosted by Jim Harris.

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Shown above is the poll results from the recent Star Wars themed blog debate about one of data governance’s biggest challenges, how to balance bureaucracy and business agility.  Rob Karel took the position for Bureaucracy as Darth Karel of the Empire, and I took the position for Agility as OCDQ-Wan Harris of the Rebellion.

However, this was a true debate format where Rob and I intentionally argued polar opposite positions with full knowledge that the reality is data governance success requires effectively balancing bureaucracy and business agility.

Just in case you missed the blog debate, here are the post links:

On this special, extended, and Star Wars themed episode of OCDQ Radio, I am joined by Rob Karel and Gwen Thomas to discuss this common challenge of effectively balancing bureaucracy and business agility on data governance programs.

Rob Karel is a Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, where he serves Business Process and Applications Professionals.  Rob is a leading expert in how companies manage data and integrate information across the enterprise.  His current research focus includes process data management, master data management, data quality management, metadata management, data governance, and data integration technologies.  Rob has more than 19 years of data management experience, working in both business and IT roles to develop solutions that provide better quality, confidence in, and usability of critical enterprise data.

Gwen Thomas is the Founder and President of The Data Governance Institute, a vendor-neutral, mission-based organization with three arms: publishing free frameworks and guidance, supporting communities of practitioners, and offering training and consulting.  Gwen also writes the popular blog Data Governance Matters, frequently contributes to IT and business publications, and is the author of the book Alpha Males and Data Disasters: The Case for Data Governance.

This extended episode of OCDQ Radio is 49 minutes long, and is divided into two parts, which are separated by a brief Star Wars themed intermission.  In Part 1, Rob and I discuss our blog debate.  In Part 2, Gwen joins us to provide her excellent insights.

Popular OCDQ Radio Episodes

Clicking on the link will take you to the episode’s blog post:

  • Demystifying Data Science — Guest Melinda Thielbar, a Ph.D. Statistician, discusses what a data scientist does and provides a straightforward explanation of key concepts such as signal-to-noise ratio, uncertainty, and correlation.
  • Data Quality and Big Data — Guest Tom Redman (aka the “Data Doc”) discusses Data Quality and Big Data, including if data quality matters less in larger data sets, and if statistical outliers represent business insights or data quality issues.
  • Demystifying Master Data Management — Guest John Owens explains the three types of data (Transaction, Domain, Master), the four master data entities (Party, Product, Location, Asset), and the Party-Role Relationship, which is where we find many of the terms commonly used to describe the Party master data entity (e.g., Customer, Supplier, Employee).
  • The Johari Window of Data Quality — Guest Martin Doyle discusses helping people better understand their data and assess its business impacts, not just the negative impacts of bad data quality, but also the positive impacts of good data quality.
  • Studying Data Quality — Guest Gordon Hamilton discusses the key concepts from recommended data quality books, including those which he has implemented in his career as a data quality practitioner.