This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Build on Human Factors
Flashy news headlines and hype have organizations believing that there are elusive individuals, known as data scientists, who embody the consummate triumvirate of deep expertise in computer science (software engineering, programming languages, and database skills), analytics (statistics, data mining, predictive analytics, simulation, optimization, and visualization skills), and domain expertise (industry, functional, or process expertise). Although there are some (actually precious few) individuals with this combination of skills, there is a growing realization that the elusive data scientist is actually a team of individuals who work closely together to fulfill the objective embodied in the data scientist role. These teams usually include a handful of multidisciplinary data scientists who are part of the senior leadership in the team. To analytic-mature organizations, this is readily apparent and mirrors their experience in growing into an analytic-mature organization.
As the field of analytics has matured, the breadth and scope of analytics in organizations have increased. There is no longer just one type of role that builds, uses, and understands analytics in an enterprise. Instead, there are multiple roles or personas, each with different skills and responsibilities. Analytic-savvy organizations build on the human capital in the organization and understand what personas they have and what personas they need to achieve their business objectives. Various roles and personas contribute to the business differently, and all the personas are typically critical to achieving the business objectives. When there is a gap in skills, these organizations invest to bring the individuals or team up to speed. Analytic personas value new knowledge, and that’s a key component to keeping the scarce resources committed to your organization. By broadening and elevating the interests, awareness, and skills of your analytic professionals, you’ll keep the team engaged and innovating for your organization.