So you want data quality…

  By Parul Bhargava | April 30, 2012 - 10:52 PM | Engineering
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“Virtually everything in business today is an undifferentiated commodity except how a company manages its information. How you manage your information determines whether you win or lose.”

– Bill Gates

In a world of big data, identifying patterns in the data is business critical. However, the biggest challenge for your defined patterns is the quality of your data and, more importantly, a set of early warning systems that will help you ensure that your data remains of high quality.

What is good data quality?

The trusted advisor is an individual that is considered the go-to for a business. Like the trusted advisor, the data we manage is provided to our business. Whether they come to us is dependent on if they consider our raw data & actionable information acceptable for making decisions, projections, and tactics.

Only then does it become considered be of good or high quality, or a trusted system.

How is “good” determined and why is this important?

The measurements are based on level of completeness, validity, consistency, timeliness, and accuracy (among other things). The impact of bad data quality is that teams spend time reconciling conflicting reports and/or making decisions with outdated or incorrect information and conclusions. The most costly outcome is that additional systems are built because “the existing system does not meet my needs.”

This pattern increases the cost of integration across data sources that are not in sync and is considered to be extremely high as end-users attempt to “work within the system” to get the results that they want.

What questions should we ask to make a difference?

Physical
  • Completeness
  • Do I have the right number of rows? – Comparison between source and target systems (missing records, extra records, mismatched records)
  • Is the data that I have the same as the data that the source has? – Column comparison that data in source system is represented in the target system (common examples are zip code, date, currency, or use of double byte character sets)
  • Performance
  • Does the load happen in a reasonable time (related to timeliness)
  • Do user queries finish in reasonable time (related to usability)
  • Redundancy
  • When dealing with multiple sources, are we seeing duplicates coming from a single source or multiple sources and how are they being handled. This can be for all columns of a row (physical duplicate) or for business specific columns (logical) duplicates.
  • Stress
  • What is the impact of increasing data loads from their known state of X to 3X? Are known performance levels maintained?
  • Timeliness
  • Is the data getting to the users in time for them to make decisions?
  • Are service levels being met?
  • How old is the data that is available?
  • When was the source last refreshed? Slowest updating source is the freshness value.
  • How does our system handle race conditions of data arriving (or not arriving) on-time

Logical
  • Consistency
  • Target systems should not have conflicting values that are held to be true in a source system
  • If discrepancies exist between multiple sources, determination of true master would be required. If true source cannot be determined, variance reporting should be implemented.
  • Referential integrity
  • Target system should not have orphaned records.

Business
  • Accuracy
  • Domain value and record count comparisons to ensure that the values seen by end users in the source system remain true in the target system.
  • Domain integrity
  • How often do Null, blank, space checking, unknown, default values incidences occur?
  • Ensure that source domain values are still enforced in the target
  • Usability
  • Do we get meaningful reports for the business at the end of the process?
  • Is the information relevant and we have supporting data elements pulled in from sources?
  • Validity
  • Domain values should be representative in the target data set.
  • How are business rules applied, is it consistently done, and can we measure it being done?
  • Do we track the modification by business rules and the impact on the data set as it is being modified?

These are just a few examples of some of the questions we could be asking. Using this very basic set of questions, we can begin creating reports and monitors to tell us the eventual state of our own system.

What kind of questions would you ask?

So you want a resume…

  By Parul Bhargava | April 27, 2012 - 10:01 PM | Life Coaching
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Over the past few weeks, I have been asked about how to write a resume or to review them or to help understand what the heck an effective resume looks like. I thought I would take a few minutes to write up some guidance on how to look at resumes as well as what you should be writing in yours. As I regularly do, let’s start with a quick story…

Many years ago, I worked for a small startup and there was a group meeting this week. The manager of the company spoke and it was clear that I was about to be laid off. Well bummer – I guess I better put together a resume.

How many times have you said the words, “I better update my resume” or, worse yet, “I need to find my resume” or, even worse, “How do I make a resume.” I guess there is one more — “What’s a resume,” but I will assume everyone got past that one.

It is one of those things that everyone hates to do, but it is one of those necessary taxes that we must pay to move forward in our careers. It is not fun or glamorous, but here are some simple things to help you put it together quickly.

  • Every quarter take 30-60 minutes and write down every single accomplishment you have done in your role.
  • When you write the accomplishment, use the form of action verb, description of what you did, and a value statement
  • The value statement should be in terms of employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, dollars, time, or some other value that can be measured objectively.

If you have all of this information at your disposal, when it comes time to find a job, you can choose the specific accomplishments that pertain to the job you are interested in.

Other general rules to be aware of while writing:

  • Keep your industry jargon and abbreviations to a minimum. Keep things in terms of the audience.
  • Write your bullets in the active voice and maintain consistency in your sentence tense.
  • Do not go over 1 page.
  • Do not go over 1 page.
  • Do not go over 1 page – while you may have accomplished a lot and you think you should put every single item on the list, it really does not help you. This was repeated 3 times intentionally.

If you follow these simple guidelines, you will have a more effective resume and have a better chance of catching that recruiter or hiring manager’s attention.

Do you have any other tips that you have found has made a difference?

4 months and counting

  By Parul Bhargava | April 16, 2012 - 4:42 PM | 20/20 Lifestyles, Personal, Triathlon
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It has been 4 months since my wife and I graduated from the 20/20 program and 11 months to the day since I started on this journey.

At my lowest, I have reached 189.6 and I continue to lose weight through a focus on exercise and thoughtful eating.

I get to have what I want, but I am aware of the impacts of those decisions. More importantly, I am aware of the impacts and I am completely ok with them.

This past weekend was great and productive on multiple fronts.

  • I ran 7.5 miles up and down a mountain on Saturday. Did I come in first? Not by a long shot and I am completely ok with that. After I was done, I was still smiling and absolutely loved it. See photo above.
  • On Sunday, I walked from our house to Starbucks. While that might not seem like a lot, it was 9 miles back and forth.
  • Oh yeah – I did my taxes between all of my running around. Woot!

To quote the great Malcolm Reynolds – “I aim to misbehave”

  • At work, I take 30 minutes a day to walk to get my steps in. Whether it is 10 minutes at lunch or 10 minutes for a quick break or all at once, I make the time for me.
  • I aim to have ridiculous step counts. Do you know why? Because I am capable.
  • I am running a 5k on April 28th.
  • I am running a half marathon on May 5th. (Still working on the details for that one though)
  • On June 23rd, I will be running the Seattle Rock n Roll marathon.
  • I will be doing an Ironman triathlon in under 17 hours before I turn 40.
  • I am likely the healthiest that I have ever been.

I continue to learn what I am capable of doing. I keep focused on form, technique, and building up my endurance day-to-day.

My parents were right; I am capable of anything if I apply myself.

Update 4/22 – This weekend I did some training with Kate and Trevor on run mechanics.

After I was done, I went and did my long run. I ran 18 miles. I was tired and my nutrition for during the run is definitely off. I was definitely energy depleted, but that is something I need to do a little more research on. That being said – I ran 18 miles. That is just ridiculously awesome. Today, I told Leslie — “I think I have a problem. I feel the sun and it makes me want to run.”

Who would have thought just a year ago that I sat on my butt rather than be outside doing some sort of physical activity.

Checking in after 2 months

  By Parul Bhargava | February 26, 2012 - 8:15 PM | 20/20 Lifestyles, Personal
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Since graduating the program, it has been an awesome time. I was able to go on a great vacation with my wonderful wife. Our trip was an adventure in being able to do what we pleased and not be limited by physical limitations. We snorkeled, climbed mountains, walked 10 miles a day, and chose to eat what we pleased for two weeks. If you want to check out the photos from my trip, feel free to check them out here.

There was an impact on the weight side, but now there was also understanding. I gained 10 lbs while I was in Hawaii and my weight went up to 220 lbs. I was surprised, but I also understood that my carbohydrate intake was much higher than the previous nine months. I understood the impact and once I went back to eating on plan, the weight dropped back to a normalized state of 210 lbs.

Now since coming back and working out for the past month, I have hit a couple of great milestones.

  • I weigh 200 lbs – I have reached my goal weight.
  • I can now run at 10 miles per hour (though for short spurts only)
  • I can now run for 30 minutes straight
  • I feel healthy
  • I feel balanced

I have found that it is all about the small choices. The picture is a testament to that. I could park closer, but why waste the opportunity for just a few more steps. Just as simply, when choosing what to eat, it is about the small choices; corn tortillas or flour, water or soda, to rice or more vegetables.

Keep every choice in mind and know why you make the choices you do. If you are making choices without thought, you are missing an opportunity for change.

Be thoughtful and be the change you want to see.