Jul 6

Jul 6 Improved Data Access Requires More than Analytics and Technology

Adoption, Analytics, BDPM, Big Data, Project Management, Statistics, Strategic Planning, Strategy, Data Program Management

Whatever the environment, new data management and analysis technology may be important, but success and sustainability will also be driven by how we manage it and by how successful we are in putting data users and their priorities into the driver’s seat.

Mar 20

Mar 20 Learning From General Electric’s Big Data Challenges

Dennis D. McDonald

Analytics, BDPM, Big Data, Costs, GE, General Electric, Strategy, Data Program Management

Two risks are apparent for GE’s approach which may also be relevant to other industries where cloud-based analytical platforms are being developed and marketed. (I’m thinking here, for example, of medical devices, prescription medicine, and treatment costs.)

Oct 1

Oct 1 Understanding the Challenges of Big Data Project Management: The Business Case

Dennis D. McDonald

Analytics, BDPM, Best Practices, Big Data, Data, Data Literacy, Management, Metrics, Project Management, Data Program Management

As hard as it sometimes for those of us who are technically inclined to admit, management doesn’t necessarily care what tools we’re using. Nor does management care how we manage our projects.

Jul 29

Jul 29 Ten Questions for People Who Manage Large Data Intensive Projects

Dennis D. McDonald

Analytics, BDPM, Big Data, DATA Act, Data, Data Access, Data Conversion, Data Literacy, Governance, Open Data, PMO, Project Management, Data Program Management

I’ve been researching how to manage projects where the goal is to make large amounts of data open, accessible, and useful.

Jun 24

Jun 24 Managing Data-Intensive Programs and Projects: Selected Articles

Dennis D. McDonald

I’ve created this special compendium of posts that are relevant to planning and managing data related programs and projects. There are four groups:

May 12

May 12 Risk, Uncertainty, and Managing Big Data Projects

Dennis D. McDonald

Analytics, BDPM, Big Data, Collaboration, Governance, Knowledge Transfer, Management, Project Management, Research, Risk Management, Data Program Management, Data Governance

Anyone who practices project management for a living will recognize this list. It’s certainly not unique to big data analytics project. It is however reasonable to ask whether “big data” projects are unique in some way that exacerbates the probability of failure.

Jul 28

Jul 28 Perspectives on the NSA and PRISM: What Dyson Missed

Dennis D. McDonald

Accountability, Analytics, Data, Data Access, Democracy, Media, Memory, NSA, PRISM, Privacy, Semantic Web, Snowden, Transparency, Cold War

In NSA: The Decision Problem George Dyson lays out a credible historical view on why he thinks what Snowden revealed about the NSA and PRISM was inevitable. While it’s certainly a pleasure to read a discussion of these issues that is so thoughtful, I think he misses one major theme that helps us understand our current predicament over what to do about Snowden.

Jan 18
Jan 18 Past Month's Website Visits by Operating System

Dennis D. McDonald

Analytics, Metrics, Operating System, Statistics, Windows

This chart shows the distribution of the past month’s visits to Dennis McDonald’s Web Site, by operating system, as of January 18, 2011: