learning journal

1. Module Overview

Introduction: The Tech/Business Divide

This module introduces the macro issues and over-arching challenges/opportunities of modern database architecture. This module will form the scaffolding and framework for the entire course as we examine issues from three high-level perspectives: business need, business need-driven data, and technology response and drivers. The relationship between technology and business is cyclic and symbiotic—technological advancements support business needs and drive them through new innovation and capabilities, while business needs respond to and move the market, supported and influenced by technological advancements. We will delve into a realistic assessment of the typical tech-business relationship, typical failure points, and ways to overcome these failures and succeed.

The module also introduces the course project, which emphasizes the importance of business and technology partners working together to yield the right solution, rather than just the largest, newest, or most well-known solution. In this course, you will be challenged to relate your experiences to both sides of the business/technology relationship.

Activities

During this module, you will complete the following activities:

• Complete the required readings

• Participate in the Getting to Know You discussion forum

• Attend class

Learning Objectives

After completing this module, you will be able to:

• Discuss why it's important for business and technology to understand the basics of database architecture

• Articulate challenges in preparing a requirements document

The readings for this module provide an overview of some of the current challenges in the business/technology relationship, with particular focus on negotiating modern data needs. Be particularly attentive to the need to keep an open mind when developing data/data architecture strategy; the need for flexible goal orientation; and the risks, fears, and resistance you will likely find when developing data-driven strategy.

• Baker, P., & Gourley, B. (2014). Data divination: Big data strategies. Boston: Course Technology PTR.

  • Chapters 2 & 3

• Boulton, C. (2016, February 5). Disconnect between CIOs and LOB managers weakens data quality. Retrieved October 24, 2016, from http://www.cio.com/article/3030249/business-analytics/disconnect-between-cios-and-lob-managers-weakens-data-quality.html (Links to an external site.) 

In this module we will examine and deconstruct the business side of the equation—who the business side is, what motivates them, their general (broad brush) view of technology, and their typical challenges and frustrations. By way of definition, the business is generally considered anything that isn’t IT or technology. In a typical organization, the business will be comprised of Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, HR, Legal, Operations, Finance, and Executives. They are generally closer to the customer, often in direct contact, and usually are aligned with revenue generating activities. As such, their success criteria and performance measurement take on a vocabulary that reflect that—terms such as market share, market penetration, sales pipeline, channel performance, ROI, customer satisfaction, inventory optimization, etc.

In an optimal setting, business units see technology as an enabler or facilitator. Occasionally, they will see technology capabilities as a catalyst for massive change and improvement. More often than not, though, business units see technology as an inhibitor and a barrier to the achievement of their goals.

During this module, you will complete the following activities:

• Complete the required readings

• Attend class

After completing this module, you will be able to:

• Identify the drivers, motivations, and success criteria associated with a typical organization’s business units

• Apply business-related vocabulary and describe business’ relationship to the customer

• Analyze the typical challenges and frustration associated with working with technology and technology groups

The chapter from Goldsmith describes the appropriate format and contents of business requirements, debunks several myths relating to business requirements, and identifies key distinctions between business and systems requirements.

The chapters from Podeswa provide an overview of what a business analyst is responsible for throughout a project's life cycle, as well as tools business analysts use while working on various projects.

• Goldsmith, R. F. (2004). Discovering real business requirements for software project success. Boston, MA: Artech House.

  • Chapter 3

• Podeswa, H. (2009). The business analyst's handbook. Boston, MA: Course Technology PTR.

  • Chapters 1 and 4

In this module, we will examine the technology point of view—their success criteria, their motivations and drivers, their vocabulary, and their challenges and frustrations. For definition, we’re referring to technology as providers of technology infrastructure, data, and applications (with an emphasis for this course on data). These groups might be referred to as an internal tech department, a contractor, or both. Technologies concern and measure themselves first with the basics of infrastructure and RASP—reliability, availability, scalability, and predictability. They also provide the business units they support with critical data about the organization and with the applications to make sense of and draw conclusions from that data.

The technology group often sees business units as groups “they don’t understand.” There is a broad brush feeling that business units do not understand complexity and timelines, and often request impossible-to-reach due dates, impossible-to-acquire data sources, and impossible-to-provide functionality. Tech groups generally measure their success via tech criteria—which is often unrelated to business success criteria.

During this module, you will complete the following activities:

• Complete the required readings

• Review the Requirements Document - Business Section assignment overview

• Attend class

• Participate in the Requirements Document discussion forum

After completing this module, you will be able to:

• Describe the drivers, motivations, and success criteria associated with a typical organization’s tech unit

• Identify tech-specific vocabulary

• Analyze typical challenges and frustration associated with working with business units

The chapters from Cadle introduce several system development lifecycles, explain how to make a business case, and provide a framework for requirements engineering. The Charles article provides insight into how technology groups view their business counterparts.

• Cadle, J. (2014). Developing information systems: Practical guidance for IT professionals. London: BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.

  • Chapters 2, 4, & 5

• Charles, L. (2015, October 29). Have zombies taken over your IT department? Retrieved February 22, 2016, from http://www.cio.com/article/2998270/leadership-management/have-zombies-taken-over-your-it-department.html (Links to an external site.)

As technology and especially data and analytics have become more and more important in business operations and customer-facing activities, the need for alignment, communication, and synchronizations of lines of business and IT groups has also become more important. As technology moves from required infrastructure to potential enabler and, in some cases, catalyst of competitive advantage, agile, forward-thinking organizations must fuse the two groups into a cohesive, highly functioning unit.

In this module, we’ll examine effective practices that can be employed to facilitate communications, business criticality, management of expectations and delivery timelines, feedback schedules and loops, and effective teaming. We will also examine specific roles that have been developed to support these activities, and suggest organizational structures and methodologies that can be employed to ensure consistent, high-function results.

During this module, you will complete the following activities:

• Complete the required readings

• Submit Draft 1 of group’s business section

• Attend class

• Participate in the Requirements Document discussion forum

After completing this module, you will be able to:

• Describe effective practices that bring together lines of business and IT groups

• Identify specific roles within organizations that have been created to facilitate these practices

• Analyze how organizations can structure themselves to put them in a position to succeed

The Davis and Radford chapters describe how the Agile and Waterfall methods impact a project’s scope and requirements. The White article shares findings from a PricewaterhouseCoopers and Iron Mountain report about how companies fail to use big data.

In this module, we’ll step back in history to trace the evolution and modification of the data layer. Our starting point will be the linear, structured, and modeled systems of 10-12 years ago, which were moderate in size and mostly based on transactions and internal company data. We’ll examine how and why tiered architectures evolved, as well as the advances and challenges of RASP—reliability, availability, scalability and predictability. From there, we’ll trace the growth (some say explosion), importance, and impact of unstructured data sources (i.e., data that comes from sources outside an organization) and the associated challenges and opportunities of data volume and richness.

We will also begin our exploration of the 3Vs of data—volume, variety, and velocity. We’ll examine their growth and development and analyze the pressures they placed on traditional systems.

During this module, you will complete the following activities:

• Complete the required readings

• Submit final draft of group’s business section

• Attend class

After completing this module, you will be able to:

• Articulate the evolution and modification of the data layer, including the related challenges, changes, opportunities, and lessons learned

• Explain the significance of “model on write” vs. “model on read”

• Describe the 3Vs

The Baker and Gourley chapters review different interpretations of what big data means, explain how to pick the “right” data sources, and describe the advantages and shortcomings of real-time analytics. The Achari chapter provides a detailed introduction to Hadoop.

• Baker, P., & Gourley, B. (2014). Data divination: Big data strategies. Boston: Course Technology PTR.

  • Chapters 1, 4, & 6

• Achari, S. (2015). Hadoop Essentials. Birmingham, [England] Packt Publishing.

  • Chapter 1