I'm always urging my clients to develop staff positions that focus on maintenance of the database. And I don't mean a dba in the traditional sense (i.e., one who tunes the system and keeps the technology running) but a staffer who is responsible for making the database work for the organization.
The National Defense Industrial Association recently advertised for a position called "Data Integrity Manager." You can read about it here: http://asi.careerhq.org/jobdetail.cfm?job=2536639
Hallelujah! Data integrity is crucial to long-term database success. By creating this position, NDIA not only sends the message that data integrity is important, but is improving the likelihood of success with their system. One of the primary reasons users stop using a system is their belief (accurate or unfounded) that "the data is wrong." With a staff person in charge, users can no longer hide behind this excuse. If the data is wrong, the Data Integrity Manager has a responsibility to make it right.
I appreciate your comment about our posted Data Integrity Manager position. This is something that I decided to do after spending some time analyzing why organizations (including NDIA) continue to struggle with maintaining the accuracy of their data in not just an AMS, but across the board in various database driven systems/applications. I came to the conclusion that this is such a crucial area that someone needs to own this area completely, sharing the responsibility amongst several departments or even several people (which is what usually happens) simply does not work. It’s a full time job to develop, implement, and manage data integrity business processes and procedures. Having said that, I envision several staff sharing some of the specific tactical tasks coming from developing the overall approach, but the management of the process should be owned by one person.
To take this even further, I strongly believe that you cannot perform effective BI analysis/efforts unless your data integrity/quality is at the highest level. I see many organizations jumping to do BI projects without FIRST having addressed the inconsistencies in their data. This is a very flawed approach as you will be generating BI based on incorrect data, thus, what you end up with is per definition not very “intelligent”. In a worst case scenario, this faulty BI analysis could lead to bad business decisions being made for the organization.
Thomas Nordby, CAE
AVP, Business Operations
National Defense Industrial Association
tnordby@ndia.org
Thomas, I agree with you completely, especially the points you make about BI.
wes
I recently implemented a new staff position for exactly what you described. Also the position is responsible for report writing and data mining. Our member database (Membership Partner) will be interfaced in 2007 so I can produce scorecards and dashboards with financial and non-financial data.
I am getting a summer intern through the Mayor’s summer program. The intern will make personal phone calls documenting member database changes. The new Database Senior Manager will make the updates to Membership Partner.