Data Strategy and the Enterprise Data Executive

This chapter begins with a discussion as to why data should not be considered the "new oil," as so many have suggested. It argues against the proposition that big data and data science can solve all data challenges. As you will see, neither concept is sufficiently well-defined to provide sufficient guidance, upon which to base a strategy. Big data technologies are tools and are only one of the necessary elements of P3T. Similarly, data scientists are people and another necessary but insufficient element. While people and tools are critically important, they are incomplete and not integrated. To this end, data strategy-through a governance process-is the force that integrates each P3T element together, making it whole, functional and sustainable. Here are three reasons for creating an organizational data strategy.

A data strategy is required to improve an organization's data. It is especially important to understand that data follows Pareto's law that avows 80 percent of organizational data to be redundant, obsolete or trivial (ROT3). Improving organizational data involves eliminating data ROT (the clear majority of an organization's data) and improving the remaining 20 percent to render it "fit for use."