eBook

Data
Strategy
Everything you need
to know to write a
compelling data strategy
and successfully apply
your data

Robert D’Astolto
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Data Strategy eBook
 Contents
Talking about data 3

What is a data strategy 4

Understanding your data, why you need a data strategy 5

What you need to know to develop a data strategy 6

Current State Assessment: Understanding where you are today 7

Stakeholders: Why it’s important to get a wide range of views 8

Business impacts: What are the causes of the pain points and how 9
will they impact your business?

Business drivers: How will these changes impact your organisation? 10

Strategy and implementation: Understanding the 4 elements of your 11

data strategy

Developing a data strategy: Who should be involved 12

How long does it take to develop a data strategy? 13

7 mistakes organisations make when developing a data strategy 14

5 key elements of a successful data strategy 22

Putting it all together: It’s time to implement your data strategy 25

Getting started: Commencing the program of work 26

Project leader: Implementing your project 27

Issues: What to look for 28

Case Study: Victoria Legal Aid 29

Data Agility are here to help 30

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Data Strategy eBook
 Robert D’Astolto
Head of Data Analytics

Talking About
Data
Robert is the Head of Data and Analytics at Data
Agility. He has a wide range of experience in
the Government and Commercial sectors and is
passionate about sharing his and his teams skills in
data and analytics to help his clients manage and
apply their data.

E-mail
[email protected]

T: 03 8646 3333
M: 0438 565 886

Website
www.dataagility.com

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Data Strategy eBook
 What Is A
Data strategy?
At Data Agility, we define a data strategy as
being your target state for how you want to
manage and apply your data. It gives you a
vision, principles, your target state that you want
to achieve, and it tells you how you’re going
to get there. It also defines how your data will
play a role in helping your business achieve its
objectives.
Harvard Business Review defines a data strategy as “A
coherent strategy for organizing, governing, analysing,
and deploying an organization’s information assets
that can be applied across industries and levels of data
maturity.”

Since 2005, Data Agility have been applying its

Enterprise Information Management framework to the
development of data strategies. We’ve constantly evolved
the framework and it has become widely respected as a
cross-industry method for organising and applying data.
Fundamentally, it enables data analytics to make timely
business decisions.

Working out what to use and what not to use can be

enormously time consuming, and there is often an
uncomfortable feeling that in doing nothing, you might be
missing the boat.

Another challenge that we see at Data Agility is that for

all the mass of data that exists, what you want may not
exist, or you may not have access to it even if it does
exist.

It is very hard to make good decisions without reliable

data.

A data lake without data quality is just a

data swamp.
Ted Friedman, Gartner
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Data Strategy eBook
Understanding Your Data
Why you need a
data strategy
At Data Agility, we have worked with hundreds of
organisations in a wide variety of industries, and
have delivered dozens of data strategies.

If a data strategy isn’t in place, it is harder to use data analytics to make

evidence based decisions, these decisions can be less accurate, and it can
take more time (and cost more) to come to these decisions.

For instance, if an organisation wants to understand how much it costs to run

a division, or what impact a decision will have on business operations, it will
be more efficient, and ultimately more effective, if they can swiftly access a
report with reliable data on which they can base their decisions.

If, on the other hand, they need to manually collate and then analyse that
data to make the decision, there is a time delay and the data can be subject
to human error. This can:

• Extend the time it takes to make the decision, all the while the business is
still operating
• It can increase the labour costs, as more people are required to run the
analysis or are taken away from critical projects to do so
• Slow down the decision–making process. It can take days or weeks to get
a result that might only take a matter of minutes with the correct data
strategy in place

A data strategy results in improved accuracy and timeliness, thus allowing

organisations to make better and faster business decisions.

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Data Strategy eBook
What You Need To Know
To develop a data
strategy?
In order to develop and implement a • And most importantly, is there a
successful data strategy, you need to budget for the data strategy?
answer some key questions first.
Not only do you need to consider your
• Do you have buy-in across your budget for the development stage,
organisation? but also be aware that you may need
• Do you know who needs to be some budget to get you going for the
involved? implementation before seeking your
• Are you clear on the approval process? entire budget.
• Is there a timeline you need to work
to or can you be more flexible with Once you have answers to these
times? questions, you can move onto the
• Have you factored in a data strategy Current State Assessment.
review, say in 18 months, to ensure
you are achieving the benefits or
making any alterations if you are not?

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Data Strategy eBook
Current State Assessment
Understanding
where you are
today
The first step in developing your data strategy is
undertaking your current state assessment. This
is your opportunity to find issues and identify
opportunities within your organisation in relation to
your data strategy.

It is at this stage that you should be asking

questions like:

• How will your data strategy help you to achieve

your business objectives?
• What are your business drivers?
• What are your key pain points with data?
• What are the business impacts of the pain points?
• What are your current strengths and capabilities
that can be built upon?
• What are the opportunities the data strategy can
help deliver?
• What are the priority areas to focus on?

To develop a data strategy that is robust and can

survive the test of time within an organisation, it is
fundamental that these questions are answered prior
to commencing work on your data strategy.

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Stakeholders
Why it’s important to
get a wide range of
views
It is important that you have a wide Be sure to cover a wide variety of
selection of internal and external people from senior management, in-
stakeholders involved with the field operators, administrative staff
development of your Current State and external stakeholders (where
Assessment. This is because they can appropriate).
bring a different viewpoint into the mix or
may be able to identify an opportunity or Prior to the consultative period
pain point that you are unaware of. commencing, it is most important that
stakeholders understand why the work is
Consultation can occur through a range being undertaken so they can provide the
of activities like one-on-one meetings, most valuable input.
digital surveys, team workshops and
surveys. Assess who should be consulted
within your organisation.

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Data Strategy eBook
Business Impacts
What are the
causes of the pain
points and how will
they impact your
business?
As a result of your stakeholder engagement, you will
have identified a series of opportunities and pain
points relating to your current data, which in turn
helps shape your data strategy. Next, it is important
to determine what impact, if any, they currently
have (or will have) in your organisation.

A simple way to assess this is to rank them on a scale of 1 to 10. For

instance, you may have identified that your data quality is inadequate
during your Current State Assessment. The next step is to identify what
impact this is having on your organisation. It may be causing significant
manual processing time to extract reports, and there may be issues with the
validity of the data, which prevents your organisation from making informed
decisions. This might be a 10/10 score because of the significant impact it
has. Document every identified opportunity and pain point, giving each a
score, then rank the scores from worst to best.

This will help you to identify where the critical issues are and what needs to
be rectified immediately, the important issues (but not urgent) and the nice to
do projects that could be left for another time. For identified pain points, try
and find the root cause. It may be cultural, old legacy systems or wrong tools.
Whatever the cause, it is important to know as this will be key to resolving
the pain points.

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Data Strategy eBook
 Business Drivers
How will these
changes impact
your organisation?
One of the many values we bring to our clients’ data
strategy development is an objective viewpoint of
the identified opportunities and pain points, and
their relationship with their business drivers. We do
not have an emotional attachment to these and can
support them to identify which ones are a priority
and need their immediate focus.

Understanding your business drivers and what your organisation is trying to

achieve is paramount to this exercise. Linking your business drivers to your
Current State Assessment also helps determine your priories and focus. A good
question to keep asking is ‘why’. For instance, why is data quality important to
your business? Is it because it will allow you to make better-informed decisions
in real-time, which will allow your workforce to focus on the key strategic
priorities which will result in your organisation achieving its targets?

The key is to keep drilling down and asking ‘why’ until you are completely
satisfied that you truly understand how this impacts your business drivers and
what the proposed changes will deliver to your organisation.

Once you reach the conclusion of the development of your Current State
Assessment, you should have answered and communicated all of the questions
that were posed at the start of the process, identified and prioritised the
opportunities and pain points, understood the causes of the pain points, and
assessed how all of these are impacting your business. Now it’s time to build your
actual Data Strategy.

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Strategy and Implementation
Understanding the
4 elements of your
data strategy
While there are lots of detailed data components such as data quality,
metadata, etc, that need to be considered when developing a data strategy,
there are four key components highlighted below that you must also consider
to tie it all together. The basis of any data strategy is that this is a planned
way forward, so that your organisation can improve the way it manages and
applies data in the future.

Business drivers
1 This includes your goals, performance
plans and data predictions.

Data governance
2 This includes data ownership, information
security and risk management.

Organisational capability
3 This includes culture, competency and
transformation.

Architecture
4 The architecture that supports your data
strategy.

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 Developing A Data
Strategy
Who should be
involved?
At Data Agility, we regularly support our
clients to develop data strategies and work
with a range of stakeholders for best results.

Now that it is time to develop your data

strategy, you will be working more closely with
your project sponsor and the executive team.
In addition, it is important to work with a wide
range of stakeholders at this stage.

At Data Agility, we work with people across

an entire organisation, in all divisions, at all
levels. Everyone brings a unique perspective
to the data strategy and can share what their
own challenges are within the organisation
when it comes to data.

When developing your own data strategy, we

recommend you have a broad representation
of people from across your organisation who
can bring their own unique perspectives to the
process.

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How Long Does It Take
To develop a data
strategy?
At Data Agility, it can take us approximately 3
months to develop a data strategy for our clients.

When you are developing your own, we recommend you allow this as the
absolute minimum time for development.

During the development phase, it is important to allow time for thorough

thought processes and for there to be several iterations of the strategy before
it is finalised.

You also need to plan for the approval and implementation phase, which can
be a lengthy process for some organisations, depending on your approval
processes.

Factors to consider are the business cycle and when new projects are
approved, what the endorsement process looks like, how often the Board or
Executive meet, and your organisation’s funding commitments.

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7 Mistakes Organisations Make
When developing a
data strategy
Developing a data strategy takes time, strategy in-house and have come to us
investment and expertise. The last for assistance when they realised they
thing you want to do is get it wrong didn’t have the experience or expertise to
or accidentally make mistakes as you deliver it successfully.
develop it.
We also work with clients who recognise
At Data Agility, we have supported the need for expert support to develop
hundreds of clients to build their data their data strategy and they seek our
strategies, so we know a thing or two services from the outset. We hope
when it comes to what not to do. that by sharing the mistakes we see
organisations make when developing
We regularly work with clients who have a data strategy, that you will avoid the
initially attempted to develop their data common pitfalls.

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Mistake #1
Budget
The first mistake we commonly see organisations
make is regarding their budget.

While it is understood that there will be a budget requirement to develop a

data strategy, a common mistake is that organisations don’t plan for the lag
between the development and endorsement of the strategy and receiving the
actual budget required to start implementing it.

Depending on your budget approval process, you may need to seek Board
approval, which can further delay the process. We recommend our clients
think about their budget approval process long before the data strategy
project commences and look to have some budget available to get going on
the implementation, or at least enough to tide you over for a short period.

The development and implementation of a data strategy needs momentum,

and you may lose it if you don’t have the funding to at least commence the
project.

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 Mistake #2
Sponsorship
The second mistake we commonly see organisations
make is regarding the sponsorship of their data
strategy.

A data strategy needs buy-in because a data strategy impacts all areas of
the business and has ramifications on the way you do business. When the
development of a data strategy is driven by the IT department, we commonly
see it fail to get traction.

The reason for this is that it often fails to have cross-organisational

sponsorship, and is being driven from a technology need rather than by the
business to solve business issues.

We recommend our clients find a sponsor within the business who can
champion the strategy, promote buy-in across their organisation and ensure
the strategy is ultimately implemented. We find this sponsor is best when in a
position of authority and has a level of respect across the organisation.

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Mistake #3
Engagement
The third mistake we commonly see organisations
make is regarding engagement.

In order to truly make your data strategy successful, it is imperative that

you engage with a wide variety of departments and individuals across your
organisation. You need to find out what the pain points are, and also the
opportunities. We recommend our clients interview staff from the executive,
to the operational staff, to the administrative staff, and everyone in between.

A common mistake we see organisations make is that they don’t interview

enough staff or take a broad cross-section of their divisions. Take for example
an organisation that has a head office and regional or satellite offices. If you
only interview head office staff, you will miss out on the opportunity to hear
the challenges faced by the regional or satellite offices.

We recommend our clients visit their regional offices to see first hand what
actually happens, how staff work, the issues they have and the opportunities
for improvement. By interviewing a wide cross-section of staff, you will have
a diverse representation of current business practices and the impacts your
data strategy will have.

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 Mistake #4
Business strategy
The forth mistake we commonly see organisations
make is regarding the business strategy.

Another mistake organisations can make is that they develop a data strategy
which is technically correct and lays out how the organisation should manage
their data, yet it doesn’t align with the broader business strategy. In order for
a data strategy to work, it needs to attach to the business drivers and needs
to demonstrate how it will help support the broader business strategy.

We recommend that our clients assess what’s in it for their organisation

and their teams to have a new data strategy in place. If there is going to be
considerable effort to develop and implement a new data strategy, the team
need to understand why they’re doing it. If you are asking staff to work in
new ways that they may view as being an increased burden, at least in the
short term, then you need to make sure that they understand how it helps
them and how it will impact the organisation as a whole.

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Mistake #5
Approval process
The fifth mistake we commonly see organisations
make is regarding the approval process.

Before you commence your data strategy implementation project, it is

important that you know what your approval process is and who needs to be
involved. For instance, this might be the Executive Management team, the
Board, or both. Depending on who the approving entity is, they will need an
appropriate level of understanding of budget, plans and so forth.

A common mistake we see is a project team get slowed down because they
didn’t factor in the approval process or align it with when their organisation
signs off new projects.

Another consideration is timing. For instance, if your Board only considers

new strategies and budgets at certain times of the year, ensure you know
when that is so that you can present your data strategy at the right time.

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 Mistake #6
Lack of expertise
The sixth mistake we commonly see organisations
make is regarding a lack of expertise.

After reading our data strategy series, you might be forgiven in thinking it is
easy to develop and implement your own data strategy. Yet we commonly see
a lack of experience and expertise underpinning the failure of these projects.

It is imperative that the team working on the data strategy deeply understand
this area. They need to have experience engaging with a wide range of
stakeholders, both internal and external, and they need to have the broader
insight into how the strategy will help the organisation achieve its goals.

They also need to be skilled at communication and selling the concept of a

data strategy so that it has the best chance of being accepted by the Board,
senior management team and the staff.

Another benefit of working with an experienced data strategy team (such as

Data Agility) is they know all of the common mistakes that are made and how
to avoid them.

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Mistake #7
Viable
The seventh mistake we commonly see organisations
make is regarding viability.

A data strategy should be visionary. It should take you from your current
state to a more optimised future state. It should improve the way you
manage and apply your data and continue to improve business processes.
Yet all too often we see data strategies that are so lofty in their ideas, that
they can’t be afforded or implemented because it will be too much of a leap
forward to achieve what has been laid out in the strategy.

Your data strategy needs to be viable and practical while also allowing for
growth. You may need to break your implementation into phases so other
areas of the business can implement the necessary changes that are required
to take your organisation forward. This delivers value incrementally and
shows everyone in your organisation what can be achieved and the benefits
that can be realised. By taking a practical, realistic approach to your data
strategy, you are more likely to get it off the ground and have a lasting
positive change on your organisation.

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 5 Key Elements
Of a successful data
strategy
The following 5 factors should be included to ensure
you have a successful data strategy.

1 Vision
Why you need to align to your organisation’s vision

The effective application of a data strategy within an organisation

requires that everyone is aligned to a single goal and a single set
of guiding behaviours.

The vision should be aligned to and supportive of the broader

organisational vision, mission, goals and strategy. Your data
strategy is one part of the broader organisational strategy, and as
such, must be aligned to it.

When writing your data strategy vision, the key is to keep it

short, succinct and to the point. At Data Agility, we recommend
our clients keep it to 20-30 words. The goal is that this vision is
easily understood by the team and broader organisation.

2 Principles
Set your guiding behaviours
When developing the data principles, you can follow the same
approach as above for the vision. Your principles are your guiding
behaviours and will be unique for each organisation. These
principles set the scene for the outcomes you want to achieve.
Like your vision, the key is to keep your principles short and
succinct. At Data Agility, we recommend our clients aim for no
more than 5 key principles.

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3 Governance
Who, what and how to govern

As you develop your data strategy, it is important to

determine your governance model. If you understand what
data you’re trying to govern, who is involved, and how it
will be governed, you will have a more successful strategy.

A common mistake we see organisations make when trying

to develop their data strategy without the expertise of
Data Agility, is that the data governance responsibility is
given to non-business staff such as those in information
technology (IT) or data teams. The problem with this
is that they are there to support the business with data
governance.

Instead, governance needs to be owned by the business,

or ‘data owners’. They need to take responsibility for their
data, amongst other things.

4 Strategy
Where do you want to go?
Part of the strategy is to define your target state. This sets
the scene for where you want to end up once you have
implemented your data strategy, and how this supports
your organisation’s strategic objectives. The strategy
should be no more than three years in duration, as things
change so quickly in the world of data. In addition to the
data, the strategy should include desired capabilities for:

• Technical
• Process
• People
• Architectural components

The vision should be aligned to and supportive of the

broader organisational vision, mission, goals and strategy.
Your data strategy is one part of the broader organisational
strategy, and as such, must be aligned to it.

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 5 Plan
Implementing your strategy

Your plan is a series of projects which enable you to get

from where you are today to the target state of your
strategy. Your plan achieves your target state and your
vision. Your plan should include:

• Technical changes required

• Organisational changes required
• Individual projects or initiatives
• Overall delivery model (eg. Internal, outsourced or
mixed)

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Putting It All Together
It’s time to implement
your data strategy
Now it’s time to commence the program of work so you
move from the thinking stage to the doing stage.

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 Getting Started
Commencing the
program of work
By this stage, your data strategy should have been
approved, and your funding should also be in place.

A program or project manager should have been

appointed or you should at least have a nominated
person who will lead the project and implementation
of the data strategy.

After all the planning and development of the data

strategy (the thinking stage), it is time for it to
become a reality (the doing stage). It is now a major
program with a number of sub-projects running
simultaneously, all with deliverables and deadlines.

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Project Leader
Implementing your
project
Your project leader will develop a detailed plan for
the full program of works, including each specific
task and who is responsible for them.

It is important to set clear deadlines so each person knows their

responsibilities and when their work is due.

As part of your data strategy, you will have listed your stated benefits and the
dates you will start to realise them. This is why setting clear deadlines with
your project team is so important. If your organisation is expecting certain
deliverables by certain deadlines, we recommend a continual assessment of
all tasks to ensure these deadlines will be met.

Constant evaluation of what’s working, but more importantly, what’s not

working, will allow you to change priorities as necessary to meet deadlines.

At Data Agility, we recommend setting up your project so that it will deliver

value on a regular basis. Rather than waiting until the end of the project to
realise benefits, aim to deliver value and benefits in incremental stages from
the outset. That also helps if you need more budget as you will have hopefully
proven the value being delivered.

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 Issues
What to look for

When your data strategy turns from an idea to a

live project, you may find yourself running into
roadblocks. This is when the project starts to
become real.

The organisation may have changing priorities. An unexpected crisis (eg. The
Covid-19 closures experienced in 2020) can take your teams’ focus away from
your data strategy implementation and change your organisation’s priorities.

A project that runs over a long period of time is likely to experience

competing priorities, so we recommend you plan for that ahead of time. We
also recommend you factor in a review halfway through the implementation
of the data strategy, so you can assess how the project is progressing, if
you have been able to achieve the benefits, and if not, what alterations are
required so you do.

Another factor to consider is the willingness of team members affected by the

strategy implementation to actually work on the project. They may not want
to do the work, or don’t want to do things differently to how they’ve always
done them.

At Data Agility, we find that if you do the detailed plan more carefully and
identify those risks early, you can have strategies in place to minimise these
disruptions, and have a plan for how you can overcome them if they do occur.

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Case Study
Victoria Legal Aid
Data Agility developed Victoria Legal Aid’s (VLA) first
data strategy. The strategy was required to focus on
lifting capabilities, enabling VLA to become a significantly
more client centric organisation.

Initially, the engagement saw the creation Working collaboratively with VLA, the work
of VLA’s data strategy and the Data Agility was undertaken in two phases, including
Enterprise Information Management a Current State Assessment followed
Framework. by the development of the strategy and
implementation plan. Working closely
Victoria Legal Aid were experiencing with the VLA Data Working Group and
issues around service planning. They had Executive, the strategy and investment
more people coming for help than what plan was endorsed by the Board.
they could provide. They recognised they
needed to understand how they could Data Agility then led the initial
prioritise who got legal aid in the State and implementation of the strategy with work
how they could they make better use of focusing on the reporting uplift, including
their services for their clients. They wanted the implementation of the Tableau Business
to understand how they could they use Intelligence suite, data governance and
data to help identify where the volume or building internal data capabilities as part
demand was coming from, which lead to of the knowledge transfer to allow VLA to
them engaging Data Agility to help them eventually own and run the program of
develop a data strategy. work.

It’s been great working with Data Agility. They

have been very motivated to understand the
business and to embed alongside our staff and
not just engage with senior leadership, but to
really understand the coal face experience of
people who are collecting data and needing
to apply it in their everyday work to improve,
to understand how effective and efficient and
productive they’re being.
Peter Noble, Executive Director, Victoria Legal Aid
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Data Agility are here to help
As you can see, creating and implementing a data strategy takes time
and is an in-depth process. There is a lot to it, and it is easy to get it
wrong. Save time, money and resources by working with the experts
in data strategy development and implementation for best results.

Data Agility are specialists in Data Analytics and Information

Management. We support our clients to improve performance and
resolve business issues through the effective application of their data.
Based in Melbourne, Australia, our clients are in Health, Government,
Commercial and Infrastructure.

Our services include data analytics, information management, project

delivery and managed services.

dataagility.com

Hi,

If you need help with your data strategy,

contact me and talk with an expert in
building frameworks and systems that are E-mail
built to fit your organisation. [email protected]

T: 03 8646 3333
M: 0438 565 886
Robert D’Astolto
Head of Data Analytics Website
www.dataagility.com Page 30
Data Strategy eBook