Data Management for Managers - Community of Practice
Executive Summary
‘Data Management for Managers - Community of Practice’ covers the benefits and challenges of establishing a Community of Practice (CoP) in data management and governance. Howard Diesel talks about the CoP approach, which emphasises change management and an agile culture, which can help organisations develop professional skills and knowledge-sharing and encourage group development. Incentives, measurement of interaction quality, and recognition are essential for participation and engagement are explored. The webinar focuses on how CoPs help in community knowledge management, organisational development, and maturity levels. Lastly, Howard discusses the growth of DAMA Community and Business Case, Data Management and Governance initiatives, and the need to establish forums and communities of practice.
Webinar Details:
Title: Data Management for Managers - Community of Practice
Date: 09 February 2021
Presenter: Howard Diesel
Meetup Group: African Data Management Community: Data Managers
Write-up Author: Howard Diesel
Contents
DAMA Community Development
Establishing a Community of Practice.
Change Management and Agile Approach.
The Benefits and Challenges of a Data Governance Community of Practice.
Agile Teams and Culture Challenges.
Community of Practice and Data Management
Benefits of a Community of Practice in a Professional Environment
Solutions for Professional Development and Training.
Group Development and Professional Development
Incentives for Participation in Community of Practice.
Community of Practice and Knowledge Management
Knowledge Management and Data Governance.
Community of Practices and Maturity Levels in Communities.
Growth of DAMA Community and Business Case.
Data Management and Governance Initiatives in the Organization.
Measurement of Interaction Quality and Engagement
Organisational Metrics and Recognition.
Establishing Forums and Communities of Practice.
Community of Practice and Organizational Development
DAMA Community Development
Many developments are happening within DAMA and worldwide as DAMA EMEA formalises its marketing efforts and DAMA India prepares for its first engagement. Utilising an Agile approach and meetups for community development, Howard Diesel notes that DAMA is focused on sharing experiences and learning from different areas within the organisation. He emphasises the importance of community development and data governance. There is a discussion of a community of practice and the organisation.
Figure 1 Levels of Data Management (DM) Community Building
Establishing a Community of Practice
Topics related to data management and community building are covered. Howard emphasises that the body of knowledge is a set of concepts and terms established by communities of practice. He also cautions against expecting CDMP certification holders to be qualified for every deliverable in the DM book. Howard discusses the increasing number of organisational practices at lower levels, such as in Johannesburg and Cape Town. He highlights the importance of specialised knowledge in various data privacy acts at the international level. Howard mentions that the main aim is organisational culture and change management for community building. Lastly, he provides an example of an open community, Mike II, established by Bearing Point and PWC, which includes wikis, blogs, and communities for knowledge sharing.
Figure 2 Organisation Culture & Change Management
Change Management and Agile Approach
Howard mentions David Marco’s LinkedIn published socialisation plan outlining the role of socialisation vehicles in change management for data management projects. The plan emphasises the importance of community practice as a key element in driving development in socialisation. It also highlights the challenges of using an agile approach to create functional teams, which can potentially isolate individual roles, and the importance of fostering team bonds and creating communities of practice to overcome these challenges. The plan suggests that communities of practice can help connect people in organisations and support capability building and better practices.
Figure 3 Data Management Socialization
The Benefits and Challenges of a Data Governance Community of Practice
Building a mature community of practice for data governance can benefit members by delegating tasks such as hiring data stewards to the community. Howard notes that this approach can be more effective than relying on individual departments due to the specialised knowledge and skill set required. The community can also establish training plans and career paths for data stewards as they better understand the necessary attributes for the role. However, challenges exist in maintaining the community, especially in isolation and the dependence on key individuals who may leave the organisation or community. These challenges are not unique to any organisation and can also be faced in companies belonging to larger business associations such as DAMA.
Figure 4 Community of Practice: Key Takeaways
Agile Teams and Culture Challenges
The challenges CEOs and CIOs face when communicating with other CEOs due to board member restrictions are discussed. Howard highlights the importance of multi-disciplinary teams in Agile methodology, their focus on completing sprints independently, and the need to maintain contact with the community of practice. He recognises the tension that may arise between leaders in the community of practice and agile team members and emphasises the importance of establishing trust within the team. Howard highlights the need for data governance and creating a data modelling community for more inclusive discussions.
Figure 4 Community of Practice: Key Takeaways
Community of Practice and Data Management
Howard notes that the community charter has been adapted to create groups focused on data privacy and big data. The goal is to connect different teams around data management and reduce duplicated work, particularly in creating a business glossary. Seniority and experience level can impact mentoring and guidance.
Figure 6 Effects of Lack of COP (Community of Practice)
Benefits of a Community of Practice in a Professional Environment
Effective team management involves engaging long-term experts in the field and matching junior team members with mentorship that aligns with their strengths to drive change quickly within the team. Failing to provide adequate mentorship can lead to underperformance and undermine the value of new team members. To support new team members in self-service analytics, creating a mentoring community is crucial to providing the resources and support they need. Howard establishes a community of practice to foster collaboration, create a support network, and prevent isolation among team members, allowing them to thrive and continue delivering effectively within the organisation.
Solutions for Professional Development and Training
New team members lacking a strong network may face a sink-or-swim scenario. A community of practice can be established to support knowledge sharing and collaboration. Face-to-face time helps with learning, and regional meetings are beneficial. Buddy systems, shadowing, observations, and mentoring schemes are helpful. Professional development and certification add value, but HR needs to catch up with the agile movement in companies. Personal budgets for individual learning may not be sufficient in all cases. Lastly, Howard notes that aligning language and terminology for data management is essential.
Figure 7 COP (Community of Practice) Benefits: Creating a Support Network for Members
Figure 8 COP (Community of Practice) Benefits Accelerating Professional Development Across Organisation
Group Development and Professional Development
To promote professional development and knowledge sharing, it is important to prioritise group training and encourage individuals to lead in areas they are interested in. Building taxonomies across the company can help create communities of practice. However, it is important to be aware of organisational silos that can form when groups have a deeper loyalty to each other than to other groups. It is recommended that other people within the organisation should start running a community of practices and creating them organically. To prevent duplication and foster a sense of community, shifting from referring to individuals to groups is also recommended.
Figure 9 COP (Community of Practice) Benefits: Breaking Down Organizational Silos
Incentives for Participation in Community of Practice
A community of practice is typically voluntary until the organisation recognises it. Once it becomes more structured and incentivised, recognised learning units and leaderboards can be used as incentives for participation and learning progress. The community of practice can expand to include responsibilities such as defining job profiles, interviewing, training, and mentoring. Incentivised participation and learning can be introduced when the community is self-sufficient and recognised within the organisation. However, challenges include competing for time with day jobs and the need for recognition and rewards for contributors.
Community of Practice and Knowledge Management
To renew CDMP in DAMA, individuals must submit activities over three years, including attending conferences, user group meetings, and presentations. The program encourages individuals to identify strengths, delegate responsibilities, and reward them. Howard notes that it also emphasises knowledge sharing through storytelling, discussions during training, and formalising knowledge management through a community of practice. This approach helps to convert the tacit knowledge of top leaders into explicit knowledge, enabling feedback on policies and standards and collaboration on the required way of work.
Knowledge Management and Data Governance
The importance of active contribution to avoid discomfort is highlighted. This requires building capability through establishing knowledge, skills, competencies, and attitudes, and the need for data privacy. Howard touches upon the lack of common resources and templates for knowledge management, the effectiveness of design patterns in object-oriented development, and initiating data governance through a community of practice. Additionally, he emphasises the significance of regular meetings for communication and engagement during the early stages of knowledge management and data governance.
Figure 10 COP (Community of Practice) Benefits: Sharing knowledge & Building Better Practice
Figure 11 COP (Community of Practice) Benefits: Meet Regularly
Community of Practices and Maturity Levels in Communities
Howard discusses the importance of discussing work on community practices during work hours rather than as an extra task. He emphasises that discussions should be helpful and applicable to work tasks and that applying what is learned in discussions to one's job is essential. Howard highlights maturity levels in communities and the value of collaboration in maintaining a business glossary. Furthermore, suggestions are offered for setting up a community of practices, including using Mike II as an example of successful collaboration.
Figure 12 COP (Community of Practice) Benefits: Community Charter
Figure 13 Community Maturity Stages
Growth of DAMA Community and Business Case
The DAMA community has established a community of practice with various collaboration techniques, including open assets, wikis, and blogs. The creation and access to different business solution offerings were also made available through change management. This community of practice has a business case and charter that aims to increase total members and events. Furthermore, local groups were formed, including data management, data governance and ethics, big data and data science, and community projects.
Figure 14 Sample Opensource Data Management Community: Mike2
Figure 15 Open Methodology
Figure 16 DAMA South Africa Community Engagement - Meetup
Figure 17 DAMA SA Meetup Groups
Data Management and Governance Initiatives in the Organization
The Central Bank of the Netherlands recently implemented a data warehouse to manage data governance and reporting. This led to establishing user groups, data modelling, and planner design, focusing on scaling, data science, and data protection, as well as training and certification for data professionals. The bank also established various communities and groups, resulting in significant membership growth, and applied the lessons learned from community engagement initiatives to its internal data management groups.
Figure 18 DAMA SA Knowledge Group Progression
Figure 19 DAMA SA CDMP Marketing
Figure 20 Membership & RSVP Growth
Measurement of Interaction Quality and Engagement
Measuring the quality of interactions is a challenge many organisations face. Christine manages leadership involvement without a specific metric, while change managers use a weighting system to rate engagement and investment. Howard emphasises the importance of the type of questions asked as an indicator of commitment to the process. The challenge of concretising and formalising a rating scale for involvement and contribution is observed while efforts are made to define a recognised learning unit for assessing learning and engagement. Additionally, LinkedIn interactions within the company have been observing increasing levels.
Organisational Metrics and Recognition
The importance of recognising the value produced and contributions made by employees in an organisation is emphasised, with an emphasis on creating correlations between elements such as agile scrum and team leadership to assess individual and team performance. To properly quantify competency and recognise hard work, metrics are required. Recognition may be tied to competencies and quality metrics, representing a more detailed view of individual performance. Specific individuals, such as Mary Lou of DAMA Mexico, are noted for their high level of activity and excellence in leadership roles. Various forums within the organisation focus on different data management topics and serve as communities of practice.
Establishing Forums and Communities of Practice
When setting up forums, it is important to consider their purpose. Task-based forums are used to resolve specific issues, while controlled forums have rules and restrictions on usage. To promote socialisation and culture change, change managers can help ensure that forums are used effectively. Additionally, the need for a community of practice depends on whether the forums successfully establish networks, trust, learning, and mentoring. Finally, an overarching community of practice could help to align relationships and share information effectively among different teams.
Community of Practice and Organizational Development
A community of practice system is crucial for knowledge management, best practices definition, and review processes in organisations. Members receive resources and templates, along with the authority to review processes. If not already established, a community of practice can grow organically from the bottom up. Gamification and agile methodologies can be integrated into the system for cross-functionality and organisational growth.
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