Visual Literacy has a very interesting page called the periodic table of visualization. It is very similar to the periodic table of the elements, but might be a tad more applicable to the everyday business analyst.

The site is a comprensive look at a huge number of different ways to visualize information, ranging from the artsy (such as the graphic facilitation) the the mundane (pie chart) to the technical (entity-relationship diagram) to the silly (knowledge map).

The UI is very good, and examples of each different type of visual tool, and a nice overall classification of the different types of visual tools. This could be very helpful if you are stuck trying to figure out how to communicate information but don’t know exactly where to start.

Take a gander …

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.

– Albert Einstein

Steve Tuck from Datanomic has an post about data quality on dq:view, where he discusses (and tries to dismantle) the use of a government produced master data file for mailing addresses in the UK. While the posting is very specific to a single application, it speaks to a situation that drives a lot of data management issues.

He writes:

Authorative sources of data are indeed useful - just don’t count on them to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

I believe that one of the biggest problems that we have in dealing with data is the false belief that for every organization and situation, there is a single view of information that can satisfy everyone’s needs. Now, this isn’t a technology problem and it isn’t a data problem, it’s an organizational problem.

The Myth of the Single View

In any organization, we end up with different groups with different needs, normally based around:

• Speed
• Reliability
• Accuracy
• Cost

Each group has specific needs based on their own situation. For example, when looking at customer data, the people in HQ might not care if every customer account has the most up-to-date address available, but the people in the warehouse certainly do. At the same time, the people in the warehouse don’t care about how much it costs to , while the people in HQ are much more focused on the bottom line.

Get these folks together in a room and you will have a terrific argument about what the organization needs and and how it is going to be done (BTW, there is a related post to this on the wonderful Creating Passionate Users).

While this sounds like a problem for human resources or general management, this phenomenon is usually expressed as a function of IT, because that is where the rubber hits the road. Since IT is often a shared resource and has a vested interest in interoperability, the issues of culture and organization come out as a function of architecture development.

An Honest Assessment

The honest truth is that there isn’t a single view of the business, its data, or its processes, that is going to meet the needs of the entire organization. A lot of vendors and consultants for CRM and MDM solutions are going to try to tell you otherwise, realize that they are selling something as they do this. The answer is that this is a complicated world, and things aren’t getting any easier.

If your IT is going to represent the entire organization, you must embrace complexity and understand the fact that there are going to be a cacophony of voices and a host of diverse world views that all exist simultaneously and are all using and competing for the same resources.

I have been working with Google Docs and Sheets lately, in order to avoid the portability problem when working at different machines and locations. While it isn’t as fully featured as Excel, it does just about everything I need it to do, and then some. Plus, it adds in the collaboration features that are almost more useful to an internet-oriented business.

It would be incredibly boring for Google simply to replicate Excel and Word in a web format, unless you are an HTML groupie. However, there are some very, very interesting features that I think really turn the traditional office application on its ear. The first thing that caught my eye was the Google Lookup function, which allows one to incorporate search information dynamically into documents. The second thing was the Google Finance function, which allows financial information to be leveraged as well.  The third thing was the ability to embed portions or entire spreadsheets into a blog or web page.
Very cool stuff, and very interesting results. One could imagine this type of thing being leveraged with Froogle, Maps, or other service, within a document, presentation, or spreadsheet. Low cost, high reward stuff. However, there are some ramifications with using this type of information. For example, the spiffy new spreadsheet you put together for your boss could be modified by outside influences (like a Google Bomb).

Worth a look, at least.

There is an interview with Robert Reich in this month’s issue of CIO Insight, titled “The Economics of People” . I am a fan of Mr. Reich, from his days back in the US Labor Department, and his thoughtful commentaries on APM’s Marketplace.

A highlight …

Today, there seem to dual anxieties in the IT workforce. IT workers fear the loss of their jobs, while IT executives fear they will not be able to find the people they need in the future. Which is the bigger problem?

The bigger challenge will be for IT executives to find the people they need. I don’t see any reason to fear the loss of good IT jobs in the U.S. Every time the business cycle turns down I hear the same worries, and I’ve heard those worries for over 20 years. But every time the business cycle turns up again, IT professionals are once again employed and they get good jobs. The demand is rising faster than the supply; it’s going to be harder and harder to get the quality of IT professional that American business needs.

The inteview has a lot of food for thought about living and working in IT in the age of outsourcing. If you haven’t already started to started to develop the skills you are going to need for your next job, read the article and then re-evaluate your position.