I’ve written in the past (here, here, and here) that it’s important to understand that all decisions require a trade-off. A corollary to that is that all resources are limited. Whether we’re talking about time, money, or people, any resource that is required to complete a project is, by definition, limited. And once you know […]
ALL resources are limited Read More »
As a former association executive who spent many years working in the association database, I remember the days of having screens with all kinds of fields that no one ever touched. For example, I worked in one system that displayed 16 fields for demographic data about a customer, even though my association didn’t collect any
Want to improve user adoption? Get rid of the screen noise Read More »
I’ve written about this before (here and here), but it’s so pervasive in my meetings with clients and vendors that I feel compelled to write again! When someone asks you a question, before you answer it, do two things: Wait until the person asking the question is completely finished before answering. Paraphrase the question and
Seek first to understand – Redux Read More »
Over the years of working with hundreds of clients, I’ve discovered that one of the biggest challenges associations have with data is self-inflicted: overly-complex business rules. For example, one group I worked with had the following business rule: If five people from the same organization attended the same event, the fifth person could attend for
Simple Business Rules Make for Easier Data Management Read More »
I recently spoke with a small association about the possibility of them acquiring a new data management system. In the course of the conversation, I mentioned that their website design was quite good, and the design itself looked very fresh. “Oh,” replied the executive director, “that’s because it IS new. We had to redesign
Have you tested your backups? Read More »
In August at the ASAE Annual Meeting, I’ll be presenting a session on Data Governance along with Deb Hangar, ASAE’s director of database administration. (Click here to learn more.) As I’ve been planning the session, a thought struck me: Whether you know or it or not, you already have a data governance policy in place.
Whether you know or it or not, you already have a data governance policy in place Read More »
When we were kids, the sandbox was the place you could play, and build things, and knock them down and create new things. It was a place where taking chance was encouraged because there was no real risk of doing something “bad.” In databases, the sandbox environment is a place where you can play, and
Do you have a "sandbox" environment? Read More »
When I work with my clients on their data management issues (especially when choosing a new AMS), I’ll ask them about board involvement and awareness: For example, how involved is the board in this process? or How much do they know about the current data management system and processes? Almost invariably, the answer resembles something
"The board never knows how hard we work." Read More »
When I work with clients on their data management systems, one of the most common requests I get is that the association would like to get a “360-degree view” of the member. What the client means, of course, is they want to be able to see everything the member has done with the association, from
It's the member's "story" Read More »
At Personifest earlier this week I got to hear Rick Smolan speak on the Human Face of Big Data. Among the many stories he related was one about taxis in the rain in Singapore. Like most big cities, when it rains in Singapore it’s difficult to get a cab. So what researchers did was to overlay
Profound data analytics may be in the most mundane places Read More »