

Habits of Highly Effective Data Professionals: “Beginning with the End in Mind” - skempe
http://www.dataversity.net/archives/6189

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pasbesoin
Hmm. Perhaps I'll wade into the article, but from the title, I'll say in
response. I was an early participant in some (at the time, and in that
location) relatively early "big data analysis". I focused on having good
knowledge of the data and having and building good tools. As a result, we not
only accomplished original objectives by many never originally envisioned, and
tackled surprise, large scale problems with relative aplomb.

In the world of data, having a specific end in mind when you start is often an
artificial and limiting perspective, particularly when it is inflexible. Then
end gets you started and provides both an objective and a result to hang the
project on. But it seldom ends up defining the scope of the eventual following
work.

P.S. Ok, read the article. There's not much to it, and nothing specific.

I'll add that we had a consultant pop up who had been brought in by senior
management and was focusing on various, often ad hoc and one-off corporate-
wide data analyses. I turned her on to a few tools she was unaware of, and her
output increased significantly in ease and efficacy, as evinced in her
subsequent thanks to me.

(In retrospect, I have mixed feelings about so empowering a consultant and her
project working on what turned out to be rather mercenary activities. But
that's a separate discussion.)

