In 1964, Bob Dylan's iconic song, "The times they are a-changin" neatly encapsulated the restlessness and spirit of protest during the 60s, and if anything, understates the degree of change experienced by that generation.
While clearly not in the same global influencing league as Mr Dylan, I had recent reason to consider the topic of change when addressing a reunited audience of recent and past graduates of PBT's Business Intelligence (BI) internship programme. Close to 100 BEE graduates have progressed through the intensive nine-month programme over the last 10 years, following a number of different career and employment tracks within BI since then.
My message to them was that in the BI industry, the times they are a-changin' with interesting new challenges to consider.
Big data
Probably the newest and most common recent catchphrase in the industry, it refers to the proliferation of large and varied data sets to be analysed. The most common discussion is around the three Vs of variety, volume and velocity. However, unless one is in the scientific community (eg, the SA SKA project) where this data is interesting for the sake of knowledge, the only 'V' that should be considered as a business community is 'value'. There's real value to be obtained by mining this data, as long as the focus is on the value as the outcome, and not just data for its own sake.
Visualisation
Often overlooked in favour of multiple spreadsheets and 'death by PowerPoint' is the ability to condense large datasets into meaningful and actionable business stories that can lead to better outcomes. Shorter presentations and concise visuals frequently lead to the outcome the BI person wants, which is action based on insight. The fact that it can take significant time and effort to produce results does not mean the results should take an audience the same effort to consume. Less is more. Think Google home page, a technically complex and highly efficient search engine is presented to the end-user via a simplistic, clean, elegant, easy-to-use manner.
Data science
This is a relatively recent term, which describes a subject area that blends IT and business skills. Think of the Google example above - the ability to conceptualise the desirability of a clean home page combined with the complex back-end is a good example of the kind of thinking which is required of an industry that promises to convert data into value.
NoSQL
I use the term NoSQL as a proxy for the variety of 'disruptive' concepts facing an industry which has been trained and brought up with the 'fact' that relational databases, keys and joins are the only way to combine and aggregate data. It would be heretical to suggest relational databases and SQL are going away any time soon. In fact, they will continue to grow and adapt to the changing market needs, but depending on the nature of the problem, users need to be aware of 'fit for purpose' alternatives.
Data management
This is a fairly broad term that encompasses data quality and master data management. At the recent 2013 ITWeb BI Conference, a statement was made that "there is such a thing as good enough" in master data. One could almost hear the gasp from data management professionals at the idea that data should be less than perfect, but from a purely BI/analytical point of view, getting the last 1% of data right does not necessarily increase the value of the outcome. Sure, it's great to have it, but big data from disparate sources does not come with a magic master data wand, and the cost of getting it right can outweigh the benefit of working with what has been found.
Waterfall vs agile
Current BI professionals wearing the scars of a multi-year Waterfall methodology project (EDW anyone?) probably lean towards more of an agile approach these days. This carries its own requirement of an agile mind, not just an agile methodology. Waterfall is more structure and agile carries its own risks, particularly with a relatively inexperienced team.
It would be heretical to suggest relational databases and SQL are going away any time soon.
There has probably never been a better time to join an industry which requires a distinct blend of business and IT skills to realise measurable value. BI now, more than ever, challenges individuals to broadly and deeply think about a variety of challenges in their careers. The times, they are indeed, a-changin'...
Let me leave the final words to Prof Hal Varian, UC Berkeley, chief economist at Google: "If you're looking for a career where your services will be in high demand, you should find something where you provide a scarce, complementary service to something that is getting ubiquitous and cheap. So what's getting ubiquitous and cheap? Data. And what is complementary to data? Analysis."
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