ten questions for people who manage large data intensive projects
TRANSCRIPT
Ten Questions for
People Who Manage
Large Data Intensive
Projects
Dennis D. McDonald, Ph.D.
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Ten Questions for People Who Manage Large Data
Intensive Projects
By Dennis D. McDonald1
July 29, 2015
Background
I’ve been researching how to manage projects where
the goal is to make large amounts of data open,
accessible, and useful.
With respect to the Federal government that means
tracking implementation of initiatives like the DATA
Act and the Big Data and Open Data activities of
agencies such as NOAA, EPA, and DOT.
One question concerns the skills needed of the people
who manage such projects. While there are generally
accepted sets of project management skills that are
generic to projects of all kinds, such as PMI’s PMBOK,
when it comes to data-intensive projects there may be
certain technical skills and knowledge that are also
needed in order to be effective.
We can’t all be “data scientists” who are expert at analyzing and modeling large quantities of variegated
data to generate insightful and meanigful visualizations. We also need to get to the point of being able
to generate meaningful analytics, starting with an assurance that the data that are being made available
are accurate and of high quality.
Data extraction, standardization, cleaning, and other data prep activities aren’t glamorous. If you’ve
ever managed projects that transform or move individual financial records from one system
environment to another you understand why paying attention to data accuracy and data quality at every
step in the data management lifecycle is critical to generating a trustworthy dataset.
1 Copyright © 2015 by Dennis D. McDonald, Ph.D. Dennis is a management consultant based in Alexandria, Virginia. His experience includes consulting company ownership and management, database publishing and data transformation, managing the integration of large systems, corporate technology strategy, social media adoption, statistical research, open data, and IT cost analysis. Clients have included the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Library of Medicine. He has worked as a project manager, analyst, and researcher for both public and private sector clients throughout the U.S. and in Europe, Egypt, and China. His web site is located at www.ddmcd.com and his email address is [email protected]. On Twitter he is @ddmcd.
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Add to this movement of your data to a cloud based platform that requires learning a new set of tools
for managing data and you begin to appreciate why a disciplined approach to project management and
associated resource and governance requirements might help you to get from point A to point B.
Ten Questions
With that as background I’m conducting interviews with industry and government executives involved
with managing data intensive projects to explore the following questions:
1. What -- if anything -- makes data intensive projects unique?
2. What special challenges -- if any -- do project managers of data intensive projects face?
3. Do “agile” project management techniques work in large complex data projects that involve a
lot of process change?
4. What role should a Project Management Organization (PMO) play in the management of data
intensive projects?
5. How do you manage the wide variation among stakeholders in their understanding of data
management and data analytics?
6. How much and what type of documentation do you need for data intensive projects?
7. How do you create, manage, and share this documentation efficiently?
8. When should data and metadata standardization efforts be project specific?
9. When should data and metadata standardization efforts be enterprise- or industry-wide?
10. Does moving your data to the cloud make your project management job harder or easier?
Please let me know if you would like to discuss these questions with me, off the record if desired. I’ll
synthesize the findings and publish them. My contact information:
Dennis D. McDonald, Ph.D., Alexandria, Virginia USA
Cell phone number 703-402-7382
Email [email protected] or [email protected]
Related reading:
Breakthrough Financial Open Data Legislation To Be Introduced May 20
Can Meat-and-Potatoes “Big Data” Help Detroit?
Challenges of Public-Private Interfaces in Open Data and Big Data Partnerships
Changing Culture of Big Data Management
DATA Act Implementation: Where’s the Plan?
Data Program Governance and the Success of Shared Digital Services
Data Standardization Scores and Changing the DATA Act
Don’t Let Tools Drive Enterprise Data Strategy
Management Needs Data Literacy To Run Open Data Programs
Observations and Questions about Open Data Program Governance
On Defining the "Maturity" of Open Data Programs
Planning for Big Data: Lessons Learned from Large Energy Utility Projects
Progress Implementing the DATA Act (draft)
Recouping “Big Data” Investment in One Year Mandates Serious Project Management