Two of the things that I’ve had the immense pleasure of enjoying in my career are the life stories of Bill Inmon and Dan Linstedt. Both of these men have shared some of the funniest stories with me, as well as the wisdom that resulted from the experiences of those stories.
There’s nothing better than truth as demonstrated in real life examples to remind us of how life’s lessons are so often shared across other areas of our lives. One of those areas is the tech industry. We can draw some of the best analogies from the school of hard knocks that open our eyes to the issues we have in the tech industry, especially around data and people.
Why? Well, because real life stories are relatable – even when the lesson is controversial. Potentially to that end, I’m sharing a story from my “adventures” on this sunny Sunday afternoon that may take us to a controversial topic in technology. I’m certain you’ll get at least one good chuckle out of this story.
How many of you, who are parents, can relate to this – asking your kids to put things back where they found them? Hammers, scissors, pliers, phones, etc. As we adults grow older, it becomes more and more impactful to put things back where we got them. There are too many “senior moments” amid our multi-tasking lives for us to depend on the incessant “retracing of our steps” to figure out where we put something down. It’s like walking into a room and forgetting why you’re there.
We know from experience that we need to follow the advice that we gave our children growing up … and yet we too get lazy. Having painted this picture, let me share my day and the data analogy that ensued.
It started on Saturday. I was running around, working in the yard. You’ve been there … in and out of the house. Doing a million things from weeding … to moving a few indoor plants out to my garden … getting ready to take the tires and rims I had removed from my tractor mower to my mechanic because I had, not one, but three, flat tires.
Between unlocking the trunk of the car to toss in the rims, wheels, and tubes; and weeding in 90+ degree heat, and who knows what else I was trying to accomplish, I had pulled my car keys out of my purse to open the trunk of the car. Instead of putting the keys back in my purse where they belonged, I left them on the island in the kitchen. (You can probably guess where this is going …)
Before I hit the hay Saturday night, I told myself, “Self, put the keys back in your purse”. But self was too tired and like my kids, self got distracted and forgot to do so.
Fast forward to today, Sunday afternoon.
I decided to go to my local Wild Bird Center to get bird seed for the bird feeders. So being totally over-caffeinated, I bounced out the door to head to get the bird seed.
Just as the door closed behind me … and locked … I remembered … my keys were not in my purse. Yep, I had that moment.
Meet Nemo …
He’s the key to my house, and at this time Nemo was lost to me.
I felt very much like Dori and had the same look on my face as she does in this picture.
Fortunately, I had my cell phone and could call my friend who had a spare key to my house.
My friend was out of town, so she couldn’t come to me with the key even if she had had the time to do so. What she did do is contact her apartment concierge and let them know that I was coming. She asked them to give me the key to her apartment, and she told me exactly where Nemo was. (Everyone needs friends like this! My angel!)
To put this into perspective, not only was my house key locked in the house, but I also had locked the car and had no key to my vehicle. Two important assets were no longer available to me.
Did I mention it was 90+ degrees outside?
Since I had my phone, I could call an Uber. The Uber driver was amazing. He took me to my friend’s place, waited for me while I ran in and retrieved Nemo, and then drove me home. (There are really good people in this world, so keep your eyes open for them … they are out there.).
On the way back from my friend’s, my phone had about 10% power left, so I asked the Uber driver if I could charge my phone. He gave me the cable, and I happily charged my phone during the 30-minute Uber ride home.
When we got home, I thanked him, tipped him generously in cash, and hopped out of the car excited to get my keys from the counter and continue with my planned day. I got into the house and immediately went to reach for my cell phone to leave the driver an additional tip and give him a 5-star rating.
Yep, you guessed it … my phone was still charging away inside the Uber car that was happily off to its next customer. I jumped on the internet to contact Uber and let them know that I had left my cell phone in the car during my last ride.
The helpful Uber rep on chat offered me his condolences for the lost cell phone. Then he asked me what the best phone number was for the Uber driver to reach me.
Wait, what? My first inclination was to recheck the Uber chat to see if John was an avatar and I had actually been talking to a chat bot the entire time. Nope, it was a human.
I answered, “The best phone number to reach me is the cell phone number that’s riding around with the driver at this moment.” Chat went dead …
Fortunately, whoever my wonderful Uber driver’s next customer was had noticed my cell phone charging and mentioned it to the driver. The driver pulled in front of my house just as the Uber chat sprang to life to suggest that I use someone else’s phone number. I killed the internet session and ran out the door.
The Uber driver handed me my phone. He got a $25 additional tip, I got my cell phone, and thought – gee, there are so many analogies that I could extract from this story, I couldn’t wait to share this.
After running my errands and getting to my favorite local restaurant to relax and reflect with a frozen sangria, here are what I believe to be important analogies from my day-long experience and our data industry.
First, let me preface this by saying that I’ve been in this business for over 36 years. I’ve dealt with data for as long as I can remember. I’ve seen “fads” and “shiny objects” come and go for decades.
Enter in the controversial subject areas … .
One of the biggest facades that I have seen and continue to hear or read about, (especially with the “data science” craze and the never-ending onslaught of new data “wrangling” tools), is this insane notion that business keys are not all that important.
Second, I’ve read and heard so called “experts” mock the idea that there is a key that ties the data set to its business meaning. I heard data scientists make comments like, “We don’t need no stinkin’ key”. I’ve heard data professionals talk sarcastically about this ridiculous idea that there could possibly be a single key that could be used to tie data sets of common shared business concepts together from multiple source systems. They joke about “one key to rule them all” as if Master Data resolution and Data Quality aren’t serious problems that our businesses face.
Are these people aware that data quality is one of the largest, if not THE LARGEST, challenges that every business in every industry faces when trying to extract value out of its data as an asset? Yes, I said data ASSET not data PRODUCT.
Third, the voices of reason and those I consider genuine thought-leaders in our industry are more typically seasoned veterans who have been in the trenches of the data-information-quality war for decades. They learned data and information management and engineering techniques having studied and worked in these disciplines for years. They have the scars to prove it. Their wisdom cannot be overlooked as much as some would like to believe it can. They help us put things back where they belong; so, I listen to them before I consider the hype.
Today’s tools, while greatly improved over the years, have not been able to replace the miracle that is the human mind. So put the shiny objects away, roll up your sleeves, and remain teachable.
Here’s the analogy …
I lost two keys today. Keys to two of largest single assets I’ve purchased in my lifetime. They are assets, not products. Those assets are my house and my vehicle. They are not stuck in some vault collecting dust as some would have you believe an asset does. I use them every single day.
Without those keys, neither asset was available to me. Neither asset was usable. Neither asset could be unlocked, be of personal benefit, or help me accomplish the business that I had planned on conducting today.
Precisely like the business keys that enable our organizations to make valuable use of data. As data professionals we are incapacitated when we attempt to understand, use, or relate data without the correct keys.
As a matter of fact, without my two particular keys, I lost something that is invaluable because it is irreplaceable to me.
I lost time, and in business, time is money.
So, losing those keys cost me money (Uber + tips) AND it cost me the time expended to retrieve the key from my wonderful friend.
Not only that, losing those keys cost me an opportunity.
By the time I had recovered those keys (and my phone), it was 4:57 p.m. The Wild Bird Center closed at 5 p.m. I could never make it to the store in time to buy the bird seed. Who suffers? My beautiful birds who could use a break trying to find food in 90+ degree weather.
What opportunities is your business suffering the loss of because your data cannot be tied together or integrated? Even worse, what risks are you introducing into the business by moving ahead under the auspices of being “data driven” without taking the time to ensure that you have the keys, and the correct keys at that?
In my case, both of my keys were Master keys. Neither my home nor my car is accessible without the single key. There’s no substitution for that specific key. If I want to access either asset without possession of the master key, something illegal must happen or I need an expert locksmith (yet another expense). A broken window, hot wiring the car, or hiring a locksmith – those were pretty much my options.
My friend was the voice of reason. She not only provided access to Nemo by clearing the obstacles of distance and proximity for me, but she told me exactly where Nemo was. Talking to her was kind of like talking to the business user who knows the data much more intimately than the data jockeys.
In agile terms, she and I collaborated and planned together to ensure that I had the access I needed, and with her instructions, I knew exactly where to find Nemo in her apartment. She worked with me to ensure that I got the right key.
When you come across bloggers or “experts” that tell you that you don’t need business keys in data to derive value from it, they are misleading you. Munging data, or data wrangling, is considered a critical data preparation process used to clean, transform, and integrate data. The processes used may reveal certain data behaviors and correlations that enable the business keys to emerge, but ultimately you require the business key, especially if you are attempting to integrate the data. That key better be the right key or you’re going to be in a world of hurt when it comes to such things as information accuracy, merging data, joining data, and consistent results; not to mention being able to survive and pass an audit.
To integrate data, and to derive or create information from your business’ data assets, you ultimately need to relate the data by business key. The long-standing principles of data and information engineering are just as relevant today as they were 50 years ago. Among those timeless principles is the critical nature of a business key. Yes, technology has changed and improved greatly, but the timeless importance of business keys cannot be stressed enough.
Don’t fall for the story that you don’t need to understand the data from the perspective of the business and that you “don’t need no stinkin’ key”. You do. You exhibit your comprehension of the way the business works by associating data to the various enterprise domains through the identification of the business key, the business key’s tie to the business processes, and understanding the results of those processes as reflected in the data set.
Moral of the story: Keys are critical, and identifying exactly where they are in the data set will save you and your business time, money, and possibly your sanity.