3/9/2017
What are the Keys to Successful Analytics Projects?
Have your analytics projects not been as successful as you thought they would be? Do you work with consultants and your expectations aren't being met? Are you looking for a better way to complete your analytics projects? There are a number of key items that can make your analytics projects a success. These items can make you look like a rock star. Today, we are going to start a 5 part series to show you how to realize successful analytics projects. The first key is ownership.
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Owning Your Analytics Project
We believe in an agile methodology to implement analytics projects and a product owner is essential to the success of a project. In the agile / scrum world, the project owner is the key stakeholder with the vision and expectations that are consistently conveyed to the scrum team. Check out this blog on Lodestars scrum methodology, BAAM.
However, ownership goes beyond just having a product owner. Ownership is a mindset that should be part of every level of the project. Every area from end users to power model builders need to have ownership in the project. I read something once on ownership. Ownership is not just doing the job or working the project. It means making it your mission to see it all the way to the end of the finish line and beyond. In my mind, this means not waiting on others to address the issues or fix problems. Ownership is looking for the issue before they become mission critical and taking the right steps to correct, even if you are at fault. Ownership is seeking out training opportunities before the project starts and continuous learning when the project is finished.
President Harry S Truman had a sign on that said "the buck stops here". If you are going to own a project, consider putting the same sign on your desk because the buck should stop with you.
Part 2 of the series on the keys to successful analytics projects will talk about everyone's favorite topic, data.