One of the things that frequently happens in a business is that it is moving faster than the groups that support it. Back in the early ‘90s I worked on a seed data warehouse that was started by a scientist working in seed design for a farm co-op. His skill was not in database design or applications. He knew how to engineer seed to make work better under different conditions.
He maintained a statistical history of seed performance based on things like the amount of rain, the impact of insects, the ability to withstand wind, application of fertilizers and chemicals, the type and PH of the soil, and the number of optimum days for growing. The goal was to use the statistics from the test crops to determine seed best suited for a farmers individual needs.
The statistical model was essential for the co-op to be competitive with larger companies with a higher focus on seed. Because his program was able to run on a laptop computer, which was just being released commercially, he could go to local retail stores, or even directly to the farm itself and mine from the statistics he was able to gather. As farms would introduce his seed the database would grow, and the predictions became more accurate.
This demonstrates the problem commonly found in a company. The business can often see the need far in advance of the availability of resources to produce a solution. This is just one example of a recurring problem I have seen repeated frequently.
I’d like to take a couple editorials to unpack this topic with the different issues arising when solutions are developed without IT involvement, and ways to mitigate them. If you want to get into the conversation early, feel free to leave a comment or drop an email to btaylor@sswug.org and we’ll include it as things develop.
Cheers,
Ben