Non-Invasive Data Governance: The Path of Least Resistance and Greatest Success


Robert Seiner - 2014
    Data Governance should not be about command-and-control, yet at times could become invasive or threatening to the work, people and culture of an organization. Non-Invasive Data Governance™ focuses on formalizing existing accountability for the management of data and improving formal communications, protection, and quality efforts through effective stewarding of data resources. Non-Invasive Data Governance will provide you with a complete set of tools to help you deliver a successful data governance program. Learn how: Steward responsibilities can be identified and recognized, formalized, and engaged according to their existing responsibility rather than being assigned or handed to people as more work. Governance of information can be applied to existing policies, standard operating procedures, practices, and methodologies, rather than being introduced or emphasized as new processes or methods. Governance of information can support all data integration, risk management, business intelligence and master data management activities rather than imposing inconsistent rigor to these initiatives. A practical and non-threatening approach can be applied to governing information and promoting stewardship of data as a cross-organization asset. Best practices and key concepts of this non-threatening approach can be communicated effectively to leverage strengths and address opportunities to improve.

Eleventh Hour CISSP®: Study Guide


Eric Conrad - 2016
    This book is streamlined to include only core certification information, and is presented for ease of last-minute studying. Main objectives of the exam are covered concisely with key concepts highlighted. The CISSP certification is the most prestigious, globally-recognized, vendor neutral exam for information security professionals. Over 100,000 professionals are certified worldwide, with many more joining their ranks. This new third edition is aligned to cover all of the material in the most current version of the exam’s Common Body of Knowledge. All domains are covered as completely and concisely as possible, giving users the best possible chance of acing the exam. Completely updated for the most current version of the exam’s Common Body of Knowledge Provides the only guide you need for last-minute studying Answers the toughest questions and highlights core topics Streamlined for maximum efficiency of study, making it ideal for professionals updating their certification or for those taking the test for the first time

Creating a Data-Driven Organization: Practical Advice from the Trenches


Carl Anderson - 2015
    This practical book shows you how true data-drivenness involves processes that require genuine buy-in across your company, from analysts and management to the C-Suite and the board.Through interviews and examples from data scientists and analytics leaders in a variety of industries, author Carl Anderson explains the analytics value chain you need to adopt when building predictive business models—from data collection and analysis to the insights and leadership that drive concrete actions. You’ll learn what works and what doesn’t, and why creating a data-driven culture throughout your organization is essential. Start from the bottom up: learn how to collect the right data the right way Hire analysts with the right skills, and organize them into teams Examine statistical and visualization tools, and fact-based story-telling methods Collect and analyze data while respecting privacy and ethics Understand how analysts and their managers can help spur a data-driven culture Learn the importance of data leadership and C-level positions such as chief data officer and chief analytics officer

CAPM Exam Prep: Rita's Course in a Book for Passing the CAPM Exam


Rita Mulcahy - 2006
    In addition to 12 comprehensive lessons, this innovative book includes games, exercises, Tricks of the Trade and common pitfalls and mistakes well as enough sample test questions for nearly a full CAPM exam. This book contains over 400 pages of material, including new exercises and sample questions never before in print. With critical time-saving tips, plus games and activities available nowhere else, this book will help you pass the CAPM exam on your FIRST try.

Agile Data Warehouse Design: Collaborative Dimensional Modeling, from Whiteboard to Star Schema


Lawrence Corr - 2011
    This book describes BEAM✲, an agile approach to dimensional modeling, for improving communication between data warehouse designers, BI stakeholders and the whole DW/BI development team. BEAM✲ provides tools and techniques that will encourage DW/BI designers and developers to move away from their keyboards and entity relationship based tools and model interactively with their colleagues. The result is everyone thinks dimensionally from the outset! Developers understand how to efficiently implement dimensional modeling solutions. Business stakeholders feel ownership of the data warehouse they have created, and can already imagine how they will use it to answer their business questions. Within this book, you will learn: ✲ Agile dimensional modeling using Business Event Analysis & Modeling (BEAM✲) ✲ Modelstorming: data modeling that is quicker, more inclusive, more productive, and frankly more fun! ✲ Telling dimensional data stories using the 7Ws (who, what, when, where, how many, why and how) ✲ Modeling by example not abstraction; using data story themes, not crow's feet, to describe detail ✲ Storyboarding the data warehouse to discover conformed dimensions and plan iterative development ✲ Visual modeling: sketching timelines, charts and grids to model complex process measurement - simply ✲ Agile design documentation: enhancing star schemas with BEAM✲ dimensional shorthand notation ✲ Solving difficult DW/BI performance and usability problems with proven dimensional design patterns Lawrence Corr is a data warehouse designer and educator. As Principal of DecisionOne Consulting, he helps clients to review and simplify their data warehouse designs, and advises vendors on visual data modeling techniques. He regularly teaches agile dimensional modeling courses worldwide and has taught dimensional DW/BI skills to thousands of students. Jim Stagnitto is a data warehouse and master data management architect specializing in the healthcare, financial services, and information service industries. He is the founder of the data warehousing and data mining consulting firm Llumino.

Passion Capital: The World's Most Valuable Asset


Paul Alofs - 2012
    These are intelligent, well-meaning answers but they are also completely wrong. More valuable than money, human resources, and intellectual property, Passion Capital is what separates leaders from followers, and innovators from imitators. It is the foundation upon which all other forms of capital are built. Passion is an emotion, but Passion Capital is tangible. It is the energy, intensity, and sustainability leaders use to build lasting value and competitive advantage. Organizations that possess Passion Capital – Apple, Johnson & Johnson, Four Seasons Hotels, the Montreal Canadiens, among others – lead their sectors, while those that rely on established forms of capital may get stuck in neutral and fail to achieve their full potential.Passion Capital presents seven principles for growing and investing in this new asset class and includes over fifty insightful stories drawn from business, not-for-profit, the arts sector, and politics.  In this groundbreaking book, veteran business leader Paul Alofs ushers in a whole new way of thinking about the very definition of success and reveals how to acquire the world’s most valuable asset and apply it to your career, company, or cause.

T-SQL Fundamentals


Itzik Ben-Gan - 2016
    Itzik Ben-Gan explains key T-SQL concepts and helps you apply your knowledge with hands-on exercises. The book first introduces T-SQL's roots and underlying logic. Next, it walks you through core topics such as single-table queries, joins, subqueries, table expressions, and set operators. Then the book covers more-advanced data-query topics such as window functions, pivoting, and grouping sets. The book also explains how to modify data, work with temporal tables, and handle transactions, and provides an overview of programmable objects. Microsoft Data Platform MVP Itzik Ben-Gan shows you how to: Review core SQL concepts and its mathematical roots Create tables and enforce data integrity Perform effective single-table queries by using the SELECT statement Query multiple tables by using joins, subqueries, table expressions, and set operators Use advanced query techniques such as window functions, pivoting, and grouping sets Insert, update, delete, and merge data Use transactions in a concurrent environment Get started with programmable objects-from variables and batches to user-defined functions, stored procedures, triggers, and dynamic SQL

Ethics and Data Science


Mike Loukides - 2018
    Yet, ethical principles for working with data have been available for decades. The real issue today is how to put those principles into action. With this report, authors Mike Loukides, Hilary Mason, and DJ Patil examine practical ways for making ethical data standards part of your work every day. To help you consider all of possible ramifications of your work on data projects, this report includes: A sample checklist that you can adapt for your own procedures Five framing guidelines (the Five C’s) for building data products: consent, clarity, consistency, control, and consequences Suggestions for building ethics into your data-driven culture Now is the time to invest in a deliberate practice of data ethics, for better products, better teams, and better outcomes. Get a copy of this report and learn what it takes to do good data science today.

Data Smart: Using Data Science to Transform Information into Insight


John W. Foreman - 2013
    Major retailers are predicting everything from when their customers are pregnant to when they want a new pair of Chuck Taylors. It's a brave new world where seemingly meaningless data can be transformed into valuable insight to drive smart business decisions.But how does one exactly do data science? Do you have to hire one of these priests of the dark arts, the "data scientist," to extract this gold from your data? Nope.Data science is little more than using straight-forward steps to process raw data into actionable insight. And in Data Smart, author and data scientist John Foreman will show you how that's done within the familiar environment of a spreadsheet. Why a spreadsheet? It's comfortable! You get to look at the data every step of the way, building confidence as you learn the tricks of the trade. Plus, spreadsheets are a vendor-neutral place to learn data science without the hype. But don't let the Excel sheets fool you. This is a book for those serious about learning the analytic techniques, the math and the magic, behind big data.Each chapter will cover a different technique in a spreadsheet so you can follow along: - Mathematical optimization, including non-linear programming and genetic algorithms- Clustering via k-means, spherical k-means, and graph modularity- Data mining in graphs, such as outlier detection- Supervised AI through logistic regression, ensemble models, and bag-of-words models- Forecasting, seasonal adjustments, and prediction intervals through monte carlo simulation- Moving from spreadsheets into the R programming languageYou get your hands dirty as you work alongside John through each technique. But never fear, the topics are readily applicable and the author laces humor throughout. You'll even learn what a dead squirrel has to do with optimization modeling, which you no doubt are dying to know.

Successful Business Intelligence: Secrets to Making BI a Killer App


Cindi Howson - 2007
    Learn about the components of a BI architecture, how to choose the appropriate tools and technologies, and how to roll out a BI strategy throughout the organisation.

Trying Hard Is Not Good Enough


Mark Friedman - 2005
    It has been used in over 40 states and seven countries outside the U.S. He provides practical methods for taking action together that are simple and common sense, that use plain language, produce minimum paper and are actually useful to managers, community members and decision-makers. The book's Results Accountability framework can be used to improve the quality of life in communities, cities, counties, states and nations, including everything from the well-being of children to the creation of a sustainable environment. It can help government and private sector agencies improve the performance of their programs and make them more customer-friendly and effective. Results Accountability is a common sense approach that replaces all the complicated jargon-laden methods foisted on us in the past. The methods can be learned and applied quickly, and all the materials are free for use by government and non-profit organizations and for-profit organizations of five persons or less. In addition to presenting practical methods, this book is also makes a contribution to social theory. The book makes a clear distinction between population and performance accountability. While public and private organizations bear responsibility for their own performance, no organization can claim ownership of the well-being of a whole population. Population accountability is not an extension of performance accountability but a separate, and perpetually unfinished, collective enterprise. The book clearly and completely explains the differences and connections betweenthese two forms of accountability. The Results Accountability progression of thought from results to experience, measures, baselines, story, partners, what works and action can be applied to any population challenge from the highest level consideration of world peace to the economic prosperity of nations and states to the safety of children in a particular community. The same thought progression can be applied to any performance accountability challenge from the management of whole governments to large public and private sector agencies to the smallest program and finally to our personal lives. Results accountability may be the only planning framework of this scope.

Data Science for Business: What you need to know about data mining and data-analytic thinking


Foster Provost - 2013
    This guide also helps you understand the many data-mining techniques in use today.Based on an MBA course Provost has taught at New York University over the past ten years, Data Science for Business provides examples of real-world business problems to illustrate these principles. You’ll not only learn how to improve communication between business stakeholders and data scientists, but also how participate intelligently in your company’s data science projects. You’ll also discover how to think data-analytically, and fully appreciate how data science methods can support business decision-making.Understand how data science fits in your organization—and how you can use it for competitive advantageTreat data as a business asset that requires careful investment if you’re to gain real valueApproach business problems data-analytically, using the data-mining process to gather good data in the most appropriate wayLearn general concepts for actually extracting knowledge from dataApply data science principles when interviewing data science job candidates

The CEO's Secret Weapon: How Great Leaders and Their Assistants Maximize Productivity and Effectiveness


Jan Jones - 2015
    That solutions-oriented individual who adds value by enhancing the executive's productivity, elevating their performance and functioning as their indispensible business partner and 'right arm.'As you read this book, you will discover the genesis of the formidable talents that are the hallmark of exeptional assistants, and understand the value they can bring to you. Throughout the book you will hear from dozens of executives and close to one hundred assistants, who gave the author a candid look into their day-to-day activities, the expectations and demands on the executive-assistant relationship, as well as their advice for how executives and assistants can work successfully and productively together. As you read about these assistants, you will begin to understand why you should not settle for anything less than a stellar assistant who knows what you need and how to give it to you, who will smooth out your life and make your workday a rewarding experience.This book provides not only the inspiration to achieve a successful business partnership, but also provides know-how and practical tools to recruit, train and work on a day-to-day basis with an exceptional assistant, showing you how to put their exemplary talents to good use. Part 1 explores the relationships between successful executives and their assistants and defines what an 'exceptional executive assistant' is. In Part 2, Jones describes the crucial characteristics that all exceptional executive assistants epitomize, and how they are critical to not only your day-to-day routine, but to your success as an executive or entrepreneur.Part 3 of this book will explore the processes, resources and skills that you will need to hire an exceptional assistant. Part 4 takes a deeper dive into the executive and assistant relationship and offers a guide to setting up a successful partnership. As with any business collaboration, it is a two-way street. In order to solidify the partnership, the executive must reciprocate. With examples throughout from successful CEOs and entrepreneurs, this book will help you create a robust, dynamic and productive partnership with your executive assistant.

Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals


Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic - 2015
    You'll discover the power of storytelling and the way to make data a pivotal point in your story. The lessons in this illuminative text are grounded in theory, but made accessible through numerous real-world examples--ready for immediate application to your next graph or presentation.Storytelling is not an inherent skill, especially when it comes to data visualization, and the tools at our disposal don't make it any easier. This book demonstrates how to go beyond conventional tools to reach the root of your data, and how to use your data to create an engaging, informative, compelling story. Specifically, you'll learn how to:Understand the importance of context and audience Determine the appropriate type of graph for your situation Recognize and eliminate the clutter clouding your information Direct your audience's attention to the most important parts of your data Think like a designer and utilize concepts of design in data visualization Leverage the power of storytelling to help your message resonate with your audience Together, the lessons in this book will help you turn your data into high impact visual stories that stick with your audience. Rid your world of ineffective graphs, one exploding 3D pie chart at a time. There is a story in your data--Storytelling with Data will give you the skills and power to tell it!

The Unicorn Project


Gene Kim - 2019
    In The Phoenix Project, Bill, an IT manager at Parts Unlimited, is tasked with a project critical to the future of the business, code named Phoenix Project. But the project is massively over budget and behind schedule. The CEO demands Bill fix the mess in ninety days or else Bill's entire department will be outsourced. In The Unicorn Project, we follow Maxine, a senior lead developer and architect, as she is exiled to the Phoenix Project, to the horror of her friends and colleagues, as punishment for contributing to a payroll outage. She tries to survive in what feels like a heartless and uncaring bureaucracy and to work within a system where no one can get anything done without endless committees, paperwork, and approvals. One day, she is approached by a ragtag bunch of misfits who say they want to overthrow the existing order, to liberate developers, to bring joy back to technology work, and to enable the business to win in a time of digital disruption. To her surprise, she finds herself drawn ever further into this movement, eventually becoming one of the leaders of the Rebellion, which puts her in the crosshairs of some familiar and very dangerous enemies. The Age of Software is here, and another mass extinction event looms--this is a story about "red shirt" developers and business leaders working together, racing against time to innovate, survive, and thrive in a time of unprecedented uncertainty...and opportunity.