Creating business value from big data and business analytics : organizational, managerial and human resource implications

This paper reports on a research project, funded by the EPSRC’s NEMODE (New Economic Models in the Digital Economy, Network+) programme, explores how organizations create value from their increasingly Big Data and the challenges they face in doing so. Three case studies are reported of large organizations with a formal business analytics group and data volumes that can be considered to be ‘big’. The case organizations are MobCo, a mobile telecoms operator, MediaCo, a television broadcaster, and CityTrans, a provider of transport services to a major city. Analysis of the cases is structured around a framework in which data and value creation are mediated by the organization’s business analytics capability. This capability is then studied through a sociotechnical lens of organization/management, process, people, and technology. From the cases twenty key findings are identified. In the area of data and value creation these are: 1. Ensure data quality, 2. Build trust and permissions platforms, 3. Provide adequate anonymization, 4. Share value with data originators, 5. Create value through data partnerships, 6. Create public as well as private value, 7. Monitor and plan for changes in legislation and regulation. In organization and management: 8. Build a corporate analytics strategy, 9. Plan for organizational and cultural change, 10. Build deep domain knowledge, 11. Structure the analytics team carefully, 12. Partner with academic institutions, 13. Create an ethics approval process, 14. Make analytics projects agile, 15. Explore and exploit in analytics projects. In technology: 16. Use visualization as story-telling, 17. Be agnostic about technology while the landscape is uncertain (i.e., maintain a focus on value). In people and tools: 18. Data scientist personal attributes (curious, problem focused), 19. Data scientist as ‘bricoleur’, 20. Data scientist acquisition and retention through challenging work. With regards to what organizations should do if they want to create value from their data the paper further proposes: a model of the analytics eco-system that places the business analytics function in a broad organizational context; and a process model for analytics implementation together with a six-stage maturity model

People in the E-Business: New Challenges, New Solutions

[Excerpt] Human Resource Planning Society’s (HRPS) annual State of the Art/Practice (SOTA/P) study has become an integral contributor to HRPS’s mission of providing leading edge thinking to its members. Past efforts conducted in 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999 have focused on identifying the issues on the horizon that will have a significant impact on the field of Human Resources (HR). This year, in a divergence from past practice, the SOTA/P effort aimed at developing a deeper understanding of one critical issue having a profound impact on organizations and HR, the rise of e-business. The rise of e-business has been both rapid and dramatic. One estimate puts the rate of adoption of the internet at 4,000 new users each hour (eMarketer, 1999) resulting in the expectation of 250 million people on line by the end of 2000, and 350 million by 2005 (Nua, 1999). E-commerce is expected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2003, and of that, 87 percent will go to the business to business (B2B) and 13 percent to the business to consumer (B2C) segments, respectively (Plumely, 2000)

Towards a situated media practice: Reflections on the implementation of project-led problem-based learning

In the field of media practice education, project-based learning is utilized as a major pedagogic paradigm with the aim of mirroring professional practice within the curriculum. However, if the use of project-based learning is to be considered as more than just a way of administrating student activity, then educators need a critical understanding of how problem encounters order practice within the life cycle of a project. The drawing together of practice-based, project-based and problem-based approaches allows us to see the overlapping nature of these approaches and also differentiate them as unique pedagogies in their own right. It is argued here that this tension between similarity and difference requires a new way of thinking about mirroring professional practice within higher education, one which offers a theory of project-based learning as a productive pedagogy which places problem encounters at its heart

Scrum Game: An Agile Software Management Game

For the past few years, in their attempt to avoid the heavyweight bureaucracy of traditional project management methods such as the Waterfall model, companies have started incorporating agile methods (e.g. Extreme Programming, Scrum, Crystal) for their project development. These methods are characterised by their incremental and iterative delivery, their ability to incorporate change at any stage of the project lifecycle, as well as their small and co-located teams. Even though these methods are included in the syllabus of many software engineering modules at university level, many students currently feel more confident with traditional, rather than agile methods. Many employers find that recent graduates are not equipped with the desired skills of a software engineer because, even though they are knowledgeable in the different software engineering practices, they lack practical experience of these methods. The combination of these two factors show that the university’s approach to teaching software management methods is only theoretical and it does not give students the opportunity to apply them to their projects so they can get a better understanding of their use. The project developed the prototype of a computer game that simulates the use of the Scrum method within different projects, named Scrum Game. The game is supplementary material for a lecture course, and its purpose is to guide students through the Scrum lifecycle. Students can thereby get a small glimpse of the different phases of Scrum, the way that the different Scrum roles interact with each other, and the way that Scrum is used to implement real projects. In addition, the Scrum Game has an administrator mode enabling lecturers to view a log of the progress of all their students in the game. They can use this mode to create new projects or to alter existing ones by adding new tasks or problems, thereby adjusting the level of difficulty to the level of their students, or so that it fits their teaching. The web-based system was developed using PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, AJAX (jQuery) and Google Charts API. The system was thoroughly tested against the initial requirements and other system tests. The Scrum Game was evaluated by 22 peer colleagues reading for an MSc in Software Engineering at the University of Southampton, to identify whether the system achieved its goal of introducing students to the Scrum methodology and reaching a deeper understanding of its practical use during project implementation. The results of a questionnaire showed that little prior knowledge was assumed during the game, and that 86% of the participants felt that the game helped them learn more about Scrum. When asked, “Do you think that if this game was part of your Project Management module, would you get a better understanding about Scrum?” an impressive 95% (21 out of 22 participants) agreed that the game would be helpful, and rated the system 8 out of 10 on average

Agile Human Resources Creating a Sustainable Future for the HR Profession

Over the last 20 years, the topic of conversation when it comes to HR, is whether or not it should even exist. The name of the function is ever changing, but are the outcomes and results evolving in the right way? Over the last 5 years, Kelly Swingler has been designing and implementing HR solutions focused on doing things differently, and the creation of her AGILE HR framework is well received by all of her clients. Agile HR helps organizations manage, motivate, engage, inspire, and lead their people in the best possible way by treating them, first and foremost, as able adults that come to work to do a good job. Mainstream HR, however, works from the perspective of policing employees through policies and procedures that suffocate and restrict employees and hinder creativity and innovation at work. This book provides hints, tips, and examples of how to implement Agile HR solutions into your organization that will help HR professionals and senior leaders implement people-focused solutions to increase productivity. It is time to put the human touch back into Human Resources. Keyword HR, employees, Agile HR, recruitment, leadership, management, talent management, onboarding, employee engagement, learning and development, employee reward, well-bein

Using Workshops to Improve Security in Software Development Teams

Though some software development teams are highly effective at delivering security, others either do not care or do not have access to security experts to teach them how. Unfortunately, these latter teams are still responsible for the security of the systems they build: systems that are ever more important to ever more people. Yet many, perhaps most, security problems can be prevented with careful design, construction and configuration of the software and systems involved, so software developers have a major contribution to make. This research investigated how to help teams of software developers achieve better security. An initial qualitative survey of 15 secure software development professionals highlighted a range of security assurance and motivation techniques suitable for teams of developers, and emphasised the human interaction aspects. A further quantitative survey of 330 successful Android developers then identified a baseline of current security practices in software development. Based on these surveys, the author created an intervention package to help software developers. Action Research techniques were used to trial and improve it in two one-year cycles with a total of 19 development teams in 11 different organisations. The later development of the package concentrated on empowering the developers involved, and reducing the involvement required from the researchers. By proving that a set of structured workshops can have an impact on the security performance of a team for a reasonable cost and without the support of security professionals, this research offers a powerful means to enhance development security in the UK, creating more secure software and systems for all users

Computing Graduate Employability: Sharing Practice

Computing is one of the largest subject areas in Higher Education, and is taught in almost every institution, graduating around 9,000 students each year. However Computing graduates are recorded as having the highest unemployment rates for all subjects (11% for Computing compared with an overall rate of 7% for graduates of all subjects). This new report, jointly published by the Council of Professors and Heads of Computing (CPHC) and Higher Education Academy (HEA) highlights the depth, complexity and richness of employability practices in the sector, and aims to share those practices more widely. The report places practice in a comparative context so that departments may learn what works from each other. It draws on research gathered from over fifty Higher Education institutions in a series of workshops, focus groups and interviews. Throughout, participants’ voices are given priority, with the report structured around the common employability challenges faced by academics. Within that structure, clusters of similar practice (those which appear in several institutions) are presented, together with a series of showcases providing rich detail of specific interventions. Challenges discussed within the report’s three themes of ‘Addressing Employability’, ‘Curriculum Issues’ and ‘Placements’ include ‘the employability agenda’, ‘student engagement’, ‘curriculum design’, ‘reaching “tipping point”’ and ‘finding alternatives to the “sandwich year”’ and are balanced throughout with a ‘View from Employers’. Clusters identify good practice from ‘hackathons’, competitions, mentoring, ‘compulsion’, an employer-led curriculum, industry-focused projects and placement preparation, application, monitoring, return, assessment and alternatives. Showcases highlight practice in ‘auditing employability’, ‘dedicated placement support’, ‘multiplicity of opportunities’, ‘short placement modules’, ‘think future’, ‘summer internships’ and ‘transition week’ from the universities of York, Kent, London South Bank, West of Scotland, Edinburgh Napier, Southampton and Brunel London, amongst other