Why No Company Should Start A Big Data Project Right Now Posted on : Aug 17 - 2017

If you have a goal to start a big data project this year, you might want to think again. No company should start a big data project right now. But, let me be clear. It’s not because I predict a major downturn in the economy or an incredible innovation that will change the way a data project should be run. It’s really simple. If you plan a big data project, you’re missing the most important aspect. It shouldn’t be about the data; it should be about your business.

While data and analytics are revolutionizing our world and changing the way we live and work, it is the insights that they provide that make them powerful. So, unless you know what business questions you need to answer and what business problem you want solved, you shouldn’t start a data project.

I still see too many big data projects that haven’t got clearly defined business goals and measurable results, which is why it isn’t surprising that so many big data projects fail. When I help companies identify the most strategic ways how data and analytics can transform their business we link each project to strategic priorities and identify business KPIs that help measure the success of these projects.

Take Citibank as a good example, every data project starts with specific business requirements. Before any data projects gets approved it has to be validated through proof-of-concepts and will be monitored using business performance metrics.

The same is true for Caterpillar, where every data project is linked to a business problem and measured using business KPIs, which in turn helps to showcase impressive returns on their data projects.

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