Data Governance

Navigating the Information Value Chain

Demystifying the path forward

The challenge for businesses is to seek answers to questions, they do this with Metrics (KPI’s) and know the relationships of the data, organized by logical categories(dimensions) that make up the result or answer to the question. This is what constitutes the Information Value Chain

Navigation

Let’s assume that you have a business problem, a business question that needs answers and you need to know the details of the data related to the business question.

Information Value Chain

 

Information Value Chain

• Business is based on Concepts.

• People thinks in terms of Concepts.

• Concepts come from Knowledge.

• Knowledge comes from Information.

• Information comes from Formulas.

• Formulas determine Information relationships based on quantities.

• Quantities come from Data.

• Data physically exist.

In today’s fast-paced high-tech business world this basic navigation (drill thru) business concept is fundamental and seems to be overlooked, in the zeal to embrace modern technology

In our quest to embrace fresh technological capabilities, a business must realize you can only truly discover new insights when you can validate them against your business model or your businesses Information Value Chain, that is currently creating your information or results.

Today data needs to be deciphered into information in order to apply formulas to determine relationships and validate concepts, in real time.

We are inundated with technical innovations and concepts it’s important to note that business is driving these changes not necessarily technology

Business is constantly striving for a better insights, better information and increased automation as well as the lower cost while doing these things several of these were examined and John Thuma’s‘ latest article

Historically though these changes were few and far between however innovation in hardware storage(technology) as well as software and compute innovations have led to a rapid unveiling of newer concepts as well as new technologies

Demystifying the path forward.

In this article we’re going to review the basic principles of information governance required for a business measure their performance. As well as explore some of the connections to some of these new technological concepts for lowering cost

To a large degree I think we’re going to find that why we do things has not changed significantly it’s just how, we now have different ways to do them.

It’s important while embracing new technology to keep in mind that some of the basic concepts, ideas, goals on how to properly structure and run a business have not changed even though many more insights and much more information and data is now available.

My point is in the implementing these technological advances could be worthless to the business and maybe even destructive, unless they are associated with a actual set of Business Information Goals(Measurements KPI’s) and they are linked directly with understandable Business deliverables.

And moreover prior to even considering or engaging a data scienkce or attempt data mining you should organize your datasets capturing the relationships and apply a “scoring” or “ranking” process and be able to relate them to your business information model or Information Value Chain, with the concept of quality applied real time.

The foundation for a business to navigate their Information Value Chain is an underlying Information Architecture. An Information Architecture typically, involves a model or concept of information that is used and applied to activities which require explicit details of complex information systems.

Subsequently a data management and databases are required, they form the foundation of your Information Value Chain, to bring this back to the Business Goal. Let’s take a quick look at the difference between relational database technology and graph technology as a part of emerging big data capabilities.

However, considering the timeframe for database technology evolution, has is introduced a cultural aspect of implementing new technology changes, basically resistance to change. Business that are running there current operations with technology and people form the 80s and 90s have a different perception of a solution then folks from the 2000s.

Therefore, in this case regarding a technical solution “perception is not reality”, awarement is. Business need to find ways to bridge the knowledge gap and increase awarement that simply embracing new technology will not fundamentally change the why a business is operates , however it will affect how.

Relational databases were introduced in 1970, and graph database technology was introduced in the mid to 2000

There are many topics included in the current Big Data concept to analyze, however the foundation is the Information Architecture, and the databases utilized to implement it.

There were some other advancements in database technology in between also however let’s focus on these two

 

History

1970

In a 1970s relational database, Based on mathematical Set theory, you could pre-define the relationship of tabular (tables) , implement them in a hardened structure, then query them by manually joining the tables thru physically naming attributes and gain much better insight than previous database technology however if you needed a new relationship it would require manual effort and then migration of old to new , In addition your answer it was only good as the hard coding query created

2020

In mid-2000’s the graph database was introduced , based on graph theory, that defines the relationships as tuples containing nodes and edges. Graphs represent things and relationships events describes connections between things, which makes it an ideal fit for a navigating relationship. Unlike conventional table-oriented databases, graph databases (for example Neo4J, Neptune) represent entities and relationships between them. New relationships can be discovered and added easily and without migration, basically much less manual effort.

Nodes and Edges

Graphs are made up of ‘nodes’ and ‘edges’. A node represents a ‘thing’ and an edge represents a connection between two ‘things’. The ‘thing’ in question might be a tangible object, such as an instance of an article, or a concept such as a subject area. A node can have properties (e.g. title, publication date). An edge can have a type, for example to indicate what kind of relationship the edge represents.

Takeaway.

The takeaway there are many spokes on the cultural wheel, in a business today, encompassing business acumen, technology acumen and information relationships and raw data knowledge and while they are all equally critical to success, the absolute critical step is that the logical business model defined as the Information Value Chain is maintained and enhanced.

It is a given that all business desire to lower cost and gain insight into information, it is imperative that a business maintain and improve their ability to provide accurate information that can be audited and traceable and navigate the Information Value Chain,Data Science can only be achieved after a business fully understand their existing Information Architecture and strive to maintain it.

Note as I stated above an Information Architecture is not your Enterprise Architecture. Information architecture is the structural design of shared information environments; the art and science of organizing and labelling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability; and an emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design, architecture and information science to the digital landscape. Typically, it involves a model or concept of information that is used and applied to activities which require explicit details of complex information systems.

In essence, a business needs a Rosetta stone in order translate past, current and future results.

In future articles we’re going to explore and dive into how these new technologies can be utilized and more importantly how they relate to Business outcomes