If my reading is in any way accurate (my own version of sample preparation bias) there are nearly 200 varieties of bias. What does this say about our decisions made so far? Cognitive bias tricks people into spending money now rather than saving for the unknown...
In March we will be welcoming back Lawrence Corr, bestselling author of “Agile Data Warehouse Design”. OptimalBI are happy to be hosting Lawrence’s Wellington 3-day BEAM* training workshop and data modelstorming masterclass. Lawrence’s data modelling expertise is...
The changing nature of work is a concept we are all grappling with and is dearly in need of focus to ensure we preparing our economies for different jobs in the future. I tackled elements of this last year in this blog post talking about the future of the industry...
Grabbing data off an Excel spreadsheet can be a breeze or it can be a complete pain in the butt. Whether you're a student or a well-weathered business intelligence professional you just have to grit your teeth, get a fresh mug of tea/coffee/hot chocolate and get on...
How do you resolve distrust existing between Information Technology (IT) and Business Intelligence (BI) teams? This discussion often rears it's head in my BI mentoring and coaching sessions. If you are starting in your first business intelligence management role, or...
These steps look difficult too. Are we going up or down? Source: Wikipedia (CC BY 2.0) You read that right, the steps are difficult. I'm not going to lie to you! I've written before about the promise and disappointment of open data. To those of us who work with it,...
I’ve been following this year’s Formula One. It’s a hangover from living within in the Silverstone Golden Triangle with most of the world’s F1 teams in close proximity. A race ago, in Monaco, Mercedes made a very small mistake; calculating the time required for a pit...
Participants at GovHack 2014 in Sydney, from the GovHack Wikipedia page. There are some pretty strong negative connotations to the word "hack". Most people envisage sweaty individuals in a room full of screens cracking in to sensitive information to bring the world to...
We're always hiring here at OptimalBI. Our new staff have a variety of experience, and a variety of gaps in their knowledge as a result. I recently prepared the following list of my favourite books on programming for one of our new hires. There are more than a few...