Introduction Data has been dubbed ‘the new oil’ – highly valuable, and able
to power entire industries. But unless it’s handled carefully and strategically,
it can be worthless or even detrimental to your business. No matter what
business you’re in, data can give you a clear point of difference and
competitive advantage. And now that it is also the by-product of every digital
step we take, your teams have the ability to collect and store more data than
ever. Using it to make better strategic decisions, and create tailored and
frictionless customer experiences. However, as our need for insights at
speed increases, centralized data platform architectures are failing to keep
up. They lack the flexibility to enable dispersed teams to make informed and
timely decisions. With the added challenges around governance, privacy and
security and data quality, organizations are struggling to manage the
complexity of operationalizing their data assets. The modern data stack
(MDS) – a collection of tools and patterns used for data integration – has
emerged to address these challenges. It helps you analyze data, improve
efficiencies, and unearth new opportunities. And there is a growing array of
off-the-shelf tools to choose from, avoiding the need for custom-built
solutions. In turn, that enables lower costs and increased time to production.
But there is more to reaping the benefits of MDS than having the right tools.
Its success is underpinned by modern engineering practices and software
delivery principles that allow you to accelerate development, de-risk large
projects and continuously improve products. You also need the right skillsets
across your teams, so they can make data more accessible, target the right
problems and build the right products. And of course, valuable data
intelligence relies entirely on the quality of data. These are the things we
address in this playbook, helping you save time, reduce risks, and improve
the return on investment of your data projects. Learn how shifting to a data
product mindset will help you build the right thing and build the thing right –
and how to assemble the right team to make it happen. Explore practices
and principles that will speed up production, and find out how to save time
by catching data quality issues early. And discover how you can embed
security and privacy from the start to improve the quality of your product,
build trust with your customers and allow you to move faster. Let’s get
started
