The Most Read in 2021

Looking back holds value, and we expect, like us, you too, will find some moments of joy in it. The most-read and clicked CDO Magazine articles, opinions, and leadership insights in 2021 encapsulated the essence of where we started and where we are now.

CDO Magazine began to overlook silent melancholy and pave a road out of the inadvertent abyss last year during the pandemic, while most of us were languishing in ennui.

The year was not easy for any of us, but despite the countless challenges, there were some bright spots. One of these has been a recognition of the enormous importance of connection with the world of data and the relevance of the data community for us, as reflected in the popularity and readership of CDO Magazine articles from the year 2021.

Here are the most popular posts from 2021. If you've not already read them, we hope you'll read them now. And, as we move forward to 2022, we hope that the articles and insights we publish will continue to inspire, educate, connect, and entertain data leaders like you, who make all of our research, writing, and connecting to the community worthwhile.

IT Is Not the Only Starter. All-Star Picks for Data Governance Wins

Data mismanagement is expensive. Recent research suggests that bad data—meaning low quality data and poor data governance—within an organization comes at a cost of 15-25% of revenue. And findings published in Harvard Business Review suggest that only 3% of companies are meeting basic standards in how they manage their data. In an economy wherein data has become the highest value and riskiest business asset, it’s striking that so few have executed a comprehensive and results-oriented data governance program. Read More.....

Data Architecture: What It Is And Why You Need It

In today’s digital economy, enterprises strive to maximize the value of data for improved business performance. Data architecture is a key enabler for an enterprise to become data driven. It is the practice of designing, building and optimizing data-driven systems by incorporating the company’s vision, strategies, business rules, standards, and capabilities to manage the data. While many progressive and proactive organizations have the data architecture capability within the role of chief data officer (CDO) function, there are still some organizations that are yet to take that plunge. Read More...

Scale AI by balancing speed, agility and governance

Speed is the top reason that I hear for scaling AI, but a direct approach to generating it often has the unintended consequence of reducing both productivity and business value.  To scale AI across many business units and functions, companies need to balance three organizational behaviors that can conflict: speed, agility and control.  In this article I cover the risks of these behaviors, the technology features that enable them, and the organizational structures that balance them. Read More....

The 12 Characteristics of a Mature Data & Analytics Maturity Model

 Maturity models represent a tool somewhat reflective of this sentiment. They typically consolidate a collection of thinking and experience on a particular topic to answer the questions: What are the acknowledged best practices or key capabilities for a given domain? And how far away is your organization from where it wants or needs to be? However, not all maturity models have achieved the same level of … well … maturity. Read More ....

Your First 90 Days As CDO

The purpose of this article is to have an open dialog around your critical first 90 days as a CDO and to explore the is CDO shared document which offers a template of best practices. We have created a draft industry standard process by which CDOs, who first enter an organization, can have a best-practices guide which contains a blueprint of concerns, deliverables, and considerations. It is intended to aid individuals in fulfilling the role of the CDO position – which is in itself a conundrum in that CDOs can have vastly different organizational roles and responsibilities. Read More ...

Data CoPs: A Community of Practice Foundation for Building Knowledge Graphs and Ontologies

The modern data profession is still young and has been constantly innovating since it began roughly 20 years ago. At the end of the 90’s and into the early 2000’s, there was a subtle shift toward treating data as something in its own right, as opposed to stuff to be stored, sent in messages or wrangled in some ETL process—thus kicking off the data profession. As with any innovation, there were false starts, dead ends, and a vast amount of learning. Through these growing pains, brilliant new methodologies, technologies, and new ways to apply old methodologies began to show how we, as data practitioners, can inform and add value to the industries in which we work. Read More...=

Transforming the Organization Through Data and Analytics – Dealing With ‘Messy’ Change

Creating a Data Culture implies we are going to change “the way we do things around here” with respect to managing and using our data and analytics resources and capabilities to innovate and transform our organizations. However, change is never easy! If the change is going to be successful at all, we should start by asking two questions: “Why?” and “Why now?” Read More...

Is Agile Data Governance Right For You?

 Traditional data governance approaches: centralized, decentralized, and hybrid, focus on governance councils and committees. These organizations are effective at driving development of policies, processes and overseeing enforcement. However, they are often seen as unwanted bureaucracy when enterprise needs to bring out new products and services to the market quickly. The answer may be in retooling of the data governance program to ensure that it is relevant and drives value for a rapidly transforming data-driven organization. Read More...

Future Data Scientist

In 2012, data science was described as the 'Sexiest job of the 21st century' by Harvard Business Review. The role of data scientist has become an increasingly critical one for businesses, uncovering patterns and insights from business data that help businesses stay competitive by allowing them to quickly respond to trends, and customer and, partner needs, and make informed decisions. With the advancements in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, the role of data science to support these fields is critical and therefore, data scientist profession will remain a sexy profession for a long time. The field of data science is changing rapidly and it is important for the data scientists to be on top of these changes to adapt themselves to compete in the future. Read More...

The Data Value Exchange: What Businesses Should Know About Consumer Expectations

 Data is contextual and invisible, making it hard for individuals to understand how it is being used, and it’s easy for their trust to be abused. Today’s environment asks business leaders and their organizations to step up and recognize their duty to develop responsible data practices and define their data ethics. This need has only been magnified during the current pandemic. In particular, how consumers and businesses value data — and the gap between those different perspectives — has continued during this challenging time. Read More..

West Monroe Shares Findings from North Pole Inc. Data and Analytics Assessment

 Going into the 2022 holiday season, North Pole Inc. (ticker: XMAS), the leading global distributor of presents to good girls and boys, called upon West Monroe to assess and advise on its data-related needs and opportunities. Over the past quarter, the digital business consulting firm, West Monroe, was again given exclusive access to the operations and information systems of North Pole Inc. (NPI), to help it set a strategic path for improved information management and analytic capabilities. For nearly two centuries NPI has struggled to support its growing operation and respond proactively to competitive pressures through the use of emerging technologies and best practices. Read More :