The data knowledge gap

In most organisations, there are many people with general and specialised knowledge about the business. They will have good product knowledge, good knowledge of how the processes work; good customer, financial and regulatory knowledge.

Go into the technical part of the organisation, and they will have specialist information knowledge. They may know how the processes work. They will know know how the fix them if they go wrong. They will also be technically adept at developing new systems and implementing change.

But there is a yawning gap in many organisations - it's knowledge of the data itself. Those who manufacture the data (usually sales or customer services), rarely have to deal with it. Those who read the reports that are derived from the data will not necessarily know about the data itself.

But when projects go wrong, very often the data that is at fault or unsuitable for purpose. Because there is no specialist knowledge of the data itself, the people who produce the reports get unnecessary criticism for getting things wrong. Knowing where you have data problems is a major step for any organisation to take. For once you know you have problems, you can stop laying into your reporters and make organisational, system and process change to keep everyone happy.