A large number of companies are starting to implement at least a few of their projects using agile approaches. They do so because it is becoming known that agile projects are more successful and their stakeholders more satisfied. It is risky if a company starts implementing agile before they understand exactly what it means in terms of changing their way of thinking about projects and they expect automatic success as if by magic. -- Article published in MonitorPro magazine, 05/14, p. 26-27...
Article published in MonitorPro 04/14, p. 39-40.
Do small businesses have big data and if so, how can they take advantage of big data analytics?
The perception that small businesses have too little data or that there is no time or interest to perform data analytics or that it is too expensive is simply not true. They can still gain valuable insights from data, they just have to apply analytics in the right scope.
Big data is relative. What was perceived as big data some years ago is not big data today. Data volumes and storage capacity are constantly increasing. What we consider big data today may not be big data tomorrow. Big data may be considered as data that reaches the limits of the technical storage capacity that is available. If a small business has so much data that it fills up its disk space, this could be perceived as big data within their scope.
Big data and analytics
We often interchange the terms big...
"Big data" generally refers to enormous volumes of data stored in distributed NoSQL databases on massive servers with parallel processing. Thus many people believe that advanced analytics or data science is the same as buying the required technology. While we do need technology to analyze huge amounts of data, we also have to understand the content of our data and know what questions we want to answer based on this data. -- Article published in MonitorPro 04/14, p. 36-38...
All of us who manage IT projects know that risk management is very important. At least that is what they teach us. However, do we really manage risk in the real world, do we pay it enough attention and last but not least, do we even understand the meaning of project risk management? -- MonitorPro 02/14, p. 28-29...
As data volumes increase to the point where we call them "big data", users' appetites increase alongside. They want to be able to quickly analyze these huge volumes of data and achieve immediate business intelligence results. Agile approaches are becoming common in software development because they enable users to receive tangible results in short time intervals. Can we use such agile approaches in business intelligence as well? -- MonitorPro 01/14, p. 28-29...
Humans often understand data better if we see it in a graphical format rather than just looking at numbers in a spreadsheet. Data visualization technologies enable us to transform data into visual building blocks that enable us to easily spot trends, discover connections among data elements, present interesting discoveries to others or to detect trends. -- MonitorPro winter 2013, p. 24-26...
Whenever we talk about large volumes of data or »Big Data«, we almost always mention Hadoop, which may have even become a synonym for storing and accessing huge amounts of unstructured data. Although there is lots of chatter about using Hadoop in business environments, many business users don't know what it is and how to make sue of it. -- MonitorPro autumn 2013, p. 30-33...
Social media is increasing in popularity, both among individuals and businesses. Companies have their social media presence where they listen to what customers say about their products, services and brands. Such information can be useful in business intelligence solutions because they represent another useful source of data. -- MonitorPro magazine, summer 2013, p. 16-19...
Companies must have good quality up-to-date data about their customers, suppliers, products and services to be able to efficiently run marketing campaigns and communicate with business process stakeholders. Data quality is very important for efficient analytics and business intelligence. -- MonitorPro spring 2013, p. 26-29...
After more than 20 years in corporate IT consulting environments, I volunteered my project management services to a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Cambodia. Here are some of my experiences of the challenges facing project managers in NGOs and in developing countries in general.
NGOs are non-profit organizations that typically function in the areas of social development and improving the quality of life of underprivileged individuals. They are most often funded by international aid and donors.
Initiatives from NGOs are usually performed as projects. The aims of such projects may be to
alleviate poverty
improve living conditions
ensure human rights
protect the environment
help victims of natural and man-made catastrophes
further develop the health and education systems
Project success is measured in terms of socioeconomic progress and the levels of desired outcomes that resulted from the project. In turn, this translates into effectiveness of the donor funds. These types of results are not always tangible in nature and may not be straightforward to measure.
Project...
