“The Executors” - Section 7 of 14: THE DATA ARCHITECTURE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT (free excerpts)

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

______________________________

The Executors

The next person to step forward is sharply dressed, and as she starts to talk, her calm, commanding tone is precise and crisp. Her eyes are intense and focused. The description of her team’s purpose, its achievements and plans are structured, logical and well-rehearsed.

This is the Programme Delivery team. Their job is to “get stuff done”. They don’t have any preference of technologies or tools, they just need to know what needs to be done, by when, and with what resources, and they’ll make sure it happens.

Their team is very new and consists of expert delivery managers, brought in from other towns and cities. It was set up following the various overdue and unsuccessful projects that the incumbent teams had failed to get over the line.

The team leader is almost jarringly direct and doesn’t hesitate to explain the issues with cross-team working, lack of budgetary control, absence of leadership and unwillingness to collaborate. You can see people from other teams wincing and crossing their arms as she talks. Whilst you’re really glad to hear such honest feedback, it’s not delivered in the most diplomatic way, and the team’s going to need to work well with the other people in the room, so you can see there’s going to need to be a bit of work put into relationship building here.

Having said that, it’s a relief to know that you have people with delivery skills, even if the team is small, new and currently a little disconnected. It’s increasingly evident that you’re going to have your work cut out encouraging these various groups of people to work together productively, but you know it’s better to have that problem, than to have lots of people who all get on well but don’t have the skills you need to get the work done.

One thing that does concern you slightly, as you listen to the concluding remarks, is some of the comments you’ve heard about delivery being “the only thing that matters”. Whilst delivery is crucial, it’s also important to care about the way in which things get done, the outcomes and the people affected. Then again, if this team really is as good as their leader is saying they are, then they should know that. 

You thank your Head of Programme Delivery and move onto the next team.

______________________________


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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