Roles and skills
The roles and skills that are essential for your journey within the data maturity framework.
For data management and reporting to be considered mature you need:
- The right people in the right roles with the right skills.
- A culture that encourages and empowers data usage and data enabled decisions.
- Effective multiway communication between leaders and teams on priorities, definitions and issues.
- A vision for innovation in practise and use.
For improvement activities to be robust, a thorough understanding of the current environment is essential. This can be challenging in environments where information can be held in people's heads, documentation is inconsistent, or non-existent, and processes have developed iteratively, or locally, in siloes. It is not uncommon for several rounds of change processes to launch, progress, and then stall through lack of clarity on the impact of development.
This business knowledge is as critical as skills. Understanding which individuals understand system integrations and dependencies, data flows, business rules and the interpretation of statutory guidance within the organisational context is fundamental to managing the impact of new software, systems and processes.
Data knowledge is also critical. The transformation of data into reporting products and outputs requires both technical skills and sufficient data knowledge to exploit assets effectively and to recognise errors. In more mature environments, format and tolerance-range checking can be automated, but analysts who possess good knowledge of the business, it’s processes and its data, provide additional assurance.
Knowledge discovery – or who knows what – is an essential aspect of improving maturity but requires an open mindset for project teams and leaders to uncover where the detail is understood.
Key skills
| Skill | Importance |
|---|---|
| Conceptual clarity | Pre-empting the impact of new processes / changes on existing provision. |
| Logical | Designing appropriate models and transformations. |
| Technical | Building data processes, data sets, reporting products and dashboards. |
| Communication | Effective narratives and visual story telling with data to highlight key trends and issues. |
| Analytical | Interrogating data for patterns, testing scenarios, identifying valid comparisons. |
| Change agency | Keeping abreast of business and market developments in policy and software. |
Roles
There is significant flux in role profiles in data and reporting provision. Architecture functions are increasingly commonplace as organisations have understood the need for enterprise thinking across the technical landscape.
Within analytics, the barrier between IT-based developers and the business has blurred, with multiple models in place for data processing and transformation activities. Report design and build is transitioning from a technical activity to a business-facing function, while wider no code / low code developments are empowering non-technical practitioners.
While good governance and good quality data remain prerequisites, specifying data and reporting roles typically depends on the extent to which a central team (or individual) takes ownership of report provision.
Resourcing
One of the biggest blockers to data maturity and maintaining effective reporting provision is the recruitment and retention of individuals with the relevant technical knowledge, data skills and experience.
Few institutions or colleges have the option to heavily invest in data and reporting personnel and, where new posts are approved, the market for skilled practitioners can be frustratingly small, particularly outside major cities.
There is no magic bullet to this conundrum though organisations should consider strategically how to evolve existing teams and skillsets, embracing the opportunity to capitalise on local knowledge and develop from within. It is likely that, in some areas, practice is forging ahead and may be at higher maturity levels that others. Finding this practice and championing these teams or individuals can be an effective approach.
Where there has been significant fluctuation in teams or individuals, forming and communicating a clear vision on the skillsets to recruit and the best solution to achieving this will help enable a consensus-building transition.
| Options | Benefits | Risks |
|---|---|---|
| Development - Home Grown Identify existing staff with suitable aptitude to train and develop. |
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| Recruitment - HE / FE sector Seek experience within the sector to complement internal skills. |
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| Recruitment - public sector Seek experience within a similar culture to enhance internal skills. |
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| Recruitment - private sector Seek new ideas, approaches and skills hard to find in the sector. |
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| Consultancies Short term specialist support to kick-start development. |
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Assessment
Discover how our assessment will help you understand each element of the data maturity framework: data strategy, data governance, processes and systems, reporting and decision making.