"Mowing the Data Lawn" - Section 2 of 5 of THE DATA GARDEN (free excerpts)

 

This is the second part of the chapter titled “The Data Garden”, from the book “The Data Garden And Other Data Allegories”.

This section is crammed with even more lessons, as you (The Data Gardener) start to implement techniques for maintaining the Data Garden.

______________________________


Mowing the Data Lawn

The Data Lawn is used by families to play on, so it must be kept in good condition and must not become overgrown. However, like all data, the data grass grows every day, as do all of the other plants and shrubs throughout the garden.

As a result of all this growth, the lawn must be mowed at least once every two weeks; and sometimes once a week, during the summer months. Of course, exactly how fast the lawn grows depends on all kinds of factors, such as how much sun it is exposed to and how well it is watered. Also, it can be damaged through mis-use, which can result in the need for patches of spoilt or missing grass to be repaired or replaced.

One thing is for certain though: it’s a never-ending job. No matter what you do, you can’t stop the grass from growing; and if you want people to be able to get the most out of it and for the garden’s owners to profit from it, you’ve got to look after it.

Given the size of the garden, it’s not that big a task to maintain it by yourself and you’ve been able to quite comfortably keep on top of it, with your small, manual lawnmower and a few basic gardening tools.

You’ve established a little routine for yourself, regularly reviewing the state of the garden and its plants, and taking action to tend to them based on how well they’re getting on. Different data plants grow and age differently; some are more susceptible to damage when people use the garden than others; and as such, the frequency with which you check on them and the things you do to keep them in healthy condition vary. The good thing is, because you know what each of the plants are and the best way to treat them, you can make sure you treat them in the right way, at the right time. Plus, because you keep checking them at regular intervals, if anything unexpected happens, like unanticipated damage from a particularly heavy-footed user of the garden, you can do something about it straight away.

You’re paid a fair hourly rate for your work, and the owners are happy with the service you provide. So happy in fact, that they decide to offer you some more work…

Congratulations! You’ve been appointed to be the Head Data Landscape Gardener!

______________________________


I hope you’ve enjoyed this excerpt. 


If you are interested in reading more, please do check the book out on Amazon:

  • The Data Garden on Amazon.CO.UK
  • The Data Garden on Amazon.COM

    • Thanks for reading!


    #data #datamanagement #datagovernance #dataquality #dataarchitecture #metadata #dataliteracy #allegories #metaphors #analogies #stories #storytelling 


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