"Don’t worry about the data losses" - Section 4 of 14: THE DATA ARCHITECTURE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT (free excerpts)

This is the fourth part of the chapter titled “The Data Architecture Construction Project”, from the book “The Data Garden And Other Data Allegories”.

______________________________

Don’t worry about the data losses

What happens next is the most shocking and scary thing you’ve ever seen.

There is a sudden, loud crashing noise above you. When you look up, you find yourself frozen to the spot, as a data car tumbles from the highway and plummets down a hole only three feet from where you’re standing. You feel the rush of air caused by the data car plunging past you, and watch in horror as the data person inside screams in terror before disappearing into oblivion.

You’re gasping for breath as you look at the Head Builder and are stunned to see him gazing at you quizzically. He looks totally nonplussed by what he’s just seen.

“What,” you wheeze, “just happened?!”

“Oh that? That’s nothing. I mean, it’s normal. I mean, it’s pretty rare, in the grander scheme of things. Considering how many data cars use the flyover, it’s pretty amazing that so few are lost.”

Before you have a chance to reply, there’s another crashing sound, and you jump backwards as another car plummets past you and down the hole.

“Where do they go?”

“Oh, we don’t exactly know, but there’s no getting them back, that’s for sure. Once they’re lost down that hole, they’re gone for good.”

You can’t believe how relaxed he’s being about this. It’s like it’s a totally normal occurrence. But that was a data person in there, you could see the fear in their eyes, and now they’re gone! That can’t be right!

“Hasn’t anything been done to stop that from happening?”

“Oh yes, yes. We’ve got a team of people up there, watching out for data cars that might go missing. When one of them looks like it’s going to go off track, the team jumps to action and uses a belt of sticky plasters to nudge them in the right direction. Nine times out of ten, it works, too.”

“You have a team of people looking out for data car crashes and then manually redirecting data cars when they go off track?”

“Yep.”

“But wouldn’t it make more sense just to fix the data highway, so that none go missing?”

The Head Builder snorts. “Well, yeah, but that’d cost a lot and no one wants to spend that kind of money, given that our team catches most of the cars that go over there.”

As if on cue, another car rushes past. There’s a whole family of data people in this one and their cries for help ring in your ears.

“Surely employing a full-time team and having to keep buying plasters is expensive?”

“Oh yeah, I mean, it’s not cheap, but it’s cheaper than actually fixing the flyover properly, and it’s not like many data people go missing, so it’s alright.”

“Not many…?” You stop as you realise, looking at your Head Builder’s face, he is totally convinced that there’s nothing to worry about. Now you’re worried. What else has been built like this? What other dodgy manual fixes are you going to find?

You’ve seen enough here, so ask to be taken to your office. As you’re driven there, you think through what you’re going to say to your new team and wonder how they’re going to react. You decide to start by asking questions and listening…

______________________________


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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