These are a collection of foundation principles that every good data analytics project or team need.
People
Vision and Mission
People are the most important aspect of data analytics, whether it be your own team members that are building and developing your data analytics, or the people that will eventually consume them to progress the business forward. Try to base your decisions and priorities around people, user and community outcomes.
Recruitment
During the recruitment and development of your team, look for and develop the following aspects within your team:
- The necessary skills, knowledge and experience
- The talent to troubleshoot and overcome problems and issues that can and will occur.
- The willingness to learn and expand their knowledge on their own
When you have these sort of people in your team, the ability to perform data analytics is greatly amplified. These kind of people know how to use the tools effectively and can even help build and advance your processes and procedures.
Tools
Any data analytics project or team is only as good as the tools in which you provide your developers, the better the tools, the better the results. Experience has shown that when a tool is not available or is provided in an extremely limited capacity, the end result is a bad quality dashboard with little to no value.
Documented below are a list of tools that are recommended for successful data analytics. These are tools and software that have been seen to provide excellent results for data analytics.
Business Intelligence Software
You will need a capable Business Intelligence package that will enable you to visualise and distribute dashboards to your customers.
Suggestions for software include:
| Software Name | Link | Est Cost |
|---|---|---|
| TIBCO Spotfire | https://www.tibco.com/products/tibco-spotfire | Very Expensive |
| Tableau | https://www.tableau.com/ | Expensive |
| Qlik | https://www.qlik.com/ | Expensive |
Database Servers
It is recommended for any data analytics project or team that they have access to their own set of database servers. This is to stage, prepare, process and optimise data for delivery into your business intelligence tool.
There is a minimum of at least 3 database servers required, which will fall into the various phases of development, test and production. This is to ensure that your data, scripts and schema are developed and released in a controlled and quality focused manner.
Suggestions for database software include:
| Software Name | Link | Est Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft SQL Server | https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/sql-server/ | Expensive |
| Oracle Database | https://www.oracle.com/database/ | Expensive |
| MySQL | https://www.mysql.com/ | Varies |
Development Operations
It is recommended to have a development operations tool that will enable you to version and control the release of updates, code and scripts through the various phases of development, test and production
Suggestions for Development Operations software include:
| Software Name | Link | Est Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Azure Dev Ops (formerly Team Foundation Server) | https://azure.microsoft.com/en-au/services/devops/ | Varies |
If you are using Azure Dev Ops / Team Foundation Server and Microsoft SQL, the following tool from ApexSQL is available to link the two:
| Software Name | Link | Est Cost |
|---|---|---|
| ApexSQL Source Control | https://www.apexsql.com/sql-tools-source-control.aspx | Varies |
Project Management
It is recommended to utilise a project management tool which will enable you and your team to track the project and tasks that are associated with data analytics.
Suggestions of project management software include:
| Software Name | Link | Est Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Azure Dev Ops (formerly Team Foundation Server) | https://azure.microsoft.com/en-au/services/devops/ | Varies |
| Microsoft Project | https://products.office.com/en-au/project/project-management-software | Varies |
Documentation
It is recommended to utilise a documentation tool that will enable you and your team to document and record helpful guides, processes, procedures and other various templates.
Suggestions for documentation software include:
| Software Name | Link | Est Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Atlassian Confluence | https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence | Varies |
| SharePoint | https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ | Varies |
Processes, Procedures and Templates
You will need to set up standard processes, procedures and templates to ensure that your data analytics and dashboards are of a consistent high quality and visual appearance.
Below are a list of recommendations:
Ensure all your data analytics follow a similar template, theme or visual control
Set out processes and procedures to control the development, test and production process