The Problem with SOME BI Pundits
Late night ramblings by Chuck Hooper
Late night ramblings by Chuck Hooper
Setting the stage:
my dictionary defines “pundit” as:
“a critic or authority on a subject, especially in the media”
There are too many well known “experts” when the
topic of Business Intelligence or Big Data or Data Warehousing etc.
come up.
They have written books on the subjects. They deliver key note addresses. They tweet (sometimes way too often). They do webinars. They offer seminars. They do white papers. They profess their keen insights into all
areas of data driven analytics.
I’ve not written a book - been busy, working. I am
planning one, now.
I’ve done too few speaking engagements - too busy, working. I plan to do more, starting now.
I don't tweet, often – too busy working. I will be doing more.
I’ve hosted few webinars / seminars – again, too
damned busy, working. Might do more.
I published few white papers – still
too busy, working. Might do one, someday.
BUT, for anyone interested, I am now willing to
share many of my insights, extracted from 49 years of real work.
I’ll start with a few of the simple ones:
1. Simplicity succeeds. Complexity fails. When the pundit puts up the
diagram you can’t understand after 15 seconds, believe it is too complex, and, whatever
it’s preaching won’t work - even though some vendor convinced him/her it would.
2. Innovation is NOT building a
better mouse trap. We catch
mice, today. True innovation is solving
something not solved, before. When the pundits
offer innovative solutions, BEWARE! It’s,
most likely, just a more complex way of getting to old results. Probably costs more, too.
3. Many people want answers,
not capability. Beware of
pundits offering new ways based on little more than flawed research and poorly
designed surveys.
4. If we were not, all, in the
same situation, Dilbert will not be such a popular cartoon. It’s likely your problem has
been solved, before. Avoid reinventing the wheel!
5. One of our biggest problems
is there are too many solutions. Consider a full study of all current BI
tools, running on all possible data bases, running on all possible operating
systems, running on all possible hardware platforms. Tens of thousands of possibilities. Do you study them all? Do you do your due diligence? (I define “due
diligence” as a delaying practice initiated by those that don’t know what to
do, and, won’t trust those that do.). If
we start, and find out we are heading in the wrong direction, we can turn
around. If we never start . . . . .
6. Talk is cheap. Action can be expensive. NO action is, typically, VERY expensive!
7. Common sense is not that
common!
As for specifics on some of the better known pundits. There are ones I think are good and ones I
think are wasting my time. I won’t name
any of the bad, nor will I try to name all the good ones. I will name two that I follow, on Twitter,
and appreciate their many contributions and insights:
n Neil Raden (Twitter: @NeilRaden). Lots of insights, and, a warped sense of humor –I like that.
n Howard Dresner ( Twitter:
@howarddresner ). Howard “pulls it
all together” - partially through crowd sourcing & partially through a
wealth of experience.
That’s enough, for now – I have to get back to
work…
Chuck
Hooper is a business intelligence and data visualization consultant. Chuck
brings 49 years of business and IT experience with him. In addition to the
current consulting offerings, Chuck does speaking engagements, and, conducts
training sessions on the use of Tableau Software products, visual analytics,
data warehouse design, and other business intelligence topics, at both the
technical and the executive levels.
Material
presented Copyright © 2012,2013,2014 by Chuck Hooper. You may quote / use any of
the material by giving the author credit.
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