Understand Data

This section assesses how well you understand raw data, including its type, classification, and any properties, as well as how well you understand the simple statistical terminology of various descriptive statistics, as discussed in Chapter 2, Unfolding Your Data Journey.

1

Can identify whether data is qualitative or quantitative.

2

Can identify what level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio) a given piece of data has.

3

Can identify whether data is discrete or continuous.

4

Can understand simple statistical terminology and interpret the results of simple descriptive stats such as distributions, frequencies, ranks, percentiles, means, medians, modes, ranges, standard deviation, and interquartile ranges.

5

Can apply means, medians, and modes and how to choose the right one based on the data and the question.

6

Can identify data security, data privacy, and data ethics concerns related to the data being used.

Organizational Culture and Strategy

This section assesses how well-suited the organizational strategy is to data literacy, including how well it supports a culture of data literacy, as discussed in Chapter 4, Implementing Organizational Data Literacy and Chapter 6, Aligning with Organizational Goals.

1

An executive sponsor exists within the organization for data literacy.

2

The majority of the leaders within the organization promote data literacy in their processes, including the ability for employees to openly question and challenge data.

3

Your organization has defined and communicated its data and analytics vision and ambitions.

4

Leverages KPIs for strategic and departmental goals.

Organizational Processes

This section assesses organizational processes that relate to how they use and support data, as discussed in Chapters 4, 7, 9, and 10.

5

Decisions that are communicated include data, visualizations, and insights.

6

Decision-making processes that use both data and a human element are present within the organization.

7

The organization has processes and resources in place to support data security and data privacy.

8

The organization has processes and resources in place to monitor and improve data quality.

9

The organization has processes and education in place to foster the ethical handling of data.

Data and Analytics

This section assesses how the organization uses and provides access to data and analytics, as discussed in Chapters 2, 4, and 5.

10

Data is accessible to the majority of the organization to use in a self-service manner.

11

The organization has an established data strategy, including data management and data governance.

12

The organization leverages more than just descriptive analytics (including diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive).

13

Data and analytics are embedded into the daily operations of the organization.

Tools and Technology

This section assesses the organization’s portfolio of tools and technology to support data literacy.

14

The organization invests in tools and technology that support the data journey and makes it easier for decision-makers to leverage data.

15

The organization invests in technical integrations that bring the data and analytics to the right users within their work environment with minimal manual intervention (this includes mashups and embedded dashboards and analytics, alerts and notifications, and tools to integrate the data with the analytics).

Executive Sponsorship

An executive sponsor is critical to an organization’s data and literacy maturity. Three of their main tasks are active and visible participation, communicating support and the importance of data literacy, and building a coalition. Select the number that best represents the status of the executive sponsorship of data literacy in your organization:

1. No executive sponsor exists. (1 point)
2. The executive sponsor is only evident through funding authorization and resource allocation. (2 points)
3. There is an executive sponsor who provides active and visible participation. (3 points)
4. There is an executive sponsor who provides active and visible participation, builds a coalition, and communicates support to promote data literacy. (4 points)

Score

Leadership Support

Beyond the executive sponsor, there needs to be buy-in and support from other leaders, including actively using data to make decisions. Select the number that best represents the status of the leadership support of data literacy in your organization:

1. Managers have some awareness of the uses of data, but they don’t see the value of it, and they don’t believe data literacy is important for everyone. (1 point)
2. Many managers know data and data literacy is important, so they are interested in it, and they even use data from time to time, but they are not convinced and do not practice the principles required (that is, they do not allocate time for their team to upskill on data literacy). (2 points)
3. Most managers are engaged with data and ask the right questions about the data to harness the value in it. (3 points)
4. Most managers understand how data can improve their organization and actively use it to drive questions and influence their decisions. Leaders communicate using data and let the data inform and drive their own decisions. Leaders hold teams accountable for decisions they make if they are using just opinions and not data. (4 points)

Score

Organizational Values

Organizational values guide your business decisions. Three organizational values specific to data literacy organizations are as follows:

1. Data-informed decision-making is valuable.
2. Democratization of data across the organization is important.
3. Sharing knowledge about data is recommended and seen as valuable.

Select the number that best represents the status of the organizational values of data literacy in your organization:

4. None of the characteristics listed exist. (1 point)
5. One of the characteristics listed exists. (2 points)
6. Two of the characteristics listed exist. (3 points)
7. All three of the characteristics listed exist. (4 points)

Score

Data and Decision Culture

Culture is the way values are implemented in businesses. The following characteristics apply the data and decision culture for a data-literate organization:

1. A test and learning environment.
2. Hierarchies do not matter when it comes to decision-making.
3. Leaders should not have the ability to impose an instinct-based veto (not using data).
4. Data is openly questioned and challenged across the organization.
5. Users can ask questions and get answers without having to ask a data expert or similar.

Select the number that best represents the status of the data and decision culture at your organization.

6. None of the characteristics listed exist. (1 point)
7. One of the characteristics listed exists. (2 points)
8. Two of the characteristics listed exist. (3 points)
9. All of the characteristics listed exist. (4 points)

Score

Strategic Alignment

The following characteristics are true for data-literate organizations in terms of the strategic alignment of data literacy:

1. A vision exists for where your organization wants to end up on its data literacy journey.
2. Specific data literacy objectives have been created.
3. A link has been made between data and staying ahead of the competition.
4. Data is seen as an organizational asset.
5. Shows a clear ROI on data investments.

Select the number that best represents the status of the data and decision culture in your organization:

6. None of the characteristics listed exist. (1 point)
7. One of the characteristics listed exists. (2 points)
8. Two of the characteristics listed exist. (3 points)
9. All of the characteristics listed exist. (4 points)

Score

Investment

Data-literate organizations don’t just talk about the importance of data and analytics and data literacy – they action it with investments to support those initiatives. Select the number that best represents the investments for data literacy in your organization:

1. Most of the investment in data and analytics is budgeted on a project-by-project basis. (1 point)
2. Most of the investment in data and analytics is budgeted within each department. (2 points)
3. Most of the investments in data and analytics come from a centralized budget in IT or similar. (3 points)
4. Most of the investments in data and analytics come from a centralized budget specific to data and analytics. (4 points)

Score

Change Management

As we mentioned earlier in this book, the biggest obstacles and adoption barriers that organizations face when they try to become data-literate are managerial and cultural. Both of these require strong change management. Select the number that best represents the change management in your organization:

1. Little or no change management practice exists. (1 point)
2. Some elements of change management are applied to some projects. (2 points)
3. Comprehensive change management exists, but only for some projects. (3 points)
4. Change management is seen as an organizational competency with not only an organization-wide standard but also a dedicated team and is used at all levels of the organization. (4 points)

Score

Decision-Making Process

An organization is only truly data literate if it can use data to influence and inform decisions. This requires a decision-making process. Select the number that best represents the decision-making process in your organization:

1. Very little structure, if any at all, in a decision-making process. (1 point)
2. Some structure in the decision-making process but mostly in terms of terminology, not the actual process. (2 points)
3. There’s a structured decision-making process in some departments but not all. (3 points)
4. There’s a structured decision-making process that’s used everywhere in the organization and tied to KPIs, performance data, and resource allocation. (4 points)

Score

Metrics and Indicators

Data-literate organizations leverage data everywhere, including running the business based on metrics and KPIs. Select the number that best represents the status of the metrics and indicators in your organization:

1. Has no established KPIs. (1 point)
2. Has KPIs but only for strategic organizational performance. (2 points)
3. Has KPIs for organizational and strategic performance, as well as departmental, but the departmental ones are not horizontally aligned. (3 points)
4. Has KPIs for organizational and strategic performance, as well as departmental, and a deliberate practice is in place to trickle down and across all KPIs for vertical and horizontal alignment. (4 points)

Score

Communicating Decisions

Data-literate organizations are highly skilled in communicating data and insights. Select the number that best represents how your organization communicates with data:

1. No organizational processes exist for communicating decisions with data and insights at any level. (1 point)
2. Decisions on select projects are communicated using data and insights but only in an ad hoc manner. No formal process exists. (2 points)
3. A process exists for communicating decisions using data and insights, but it is only used on select projects or within a subset of departments. (3 points)
4. A process exists and is used everywhere across the organization for communicating decisions using data and insights. (4 points)

Score

Evaluating Decisions

Data-literate organizations have processes to evaluate and learn from decisions after they are made. The following characteristics apply to how data-literate organizations evaluate decisions:

1. The process is evaluated, not just the decision.
2. Post-mortem on major decisions.
3. Information is collected and analyzed related to the decision after it is made.
4. A process exists for evaluating decisions after they are made.

Select the number that best represents the status of evaluating decisions in your organization:

5. None or one of the characteristics listed exists. (1 point)
6. Two of the characteristics listed exist. (2 points)
7. Three of the characteristics listed exist. (3 points)
8. All four of the characteristics listed exist. (4 points)

Score

Talent Management

Data-literate organizations properly manage their organization’s talent as it relates to data literacy. Less focus is put on the specific job and role, and more focus is put on the relevant competencies and skills. The following characteristics apply to how data-literate organizations think about talent management:

1. The Criteria for assessing potential employees includes looking for specific data literacy competencies and skills.
2. The organization has a list of competencies and/or skills that are required to meet organization goals.
3. The organization has a method for analyzing employees against required competencies and/or skills.
4. The organization has an approach for closing the competency and skills gaps via learning opportunities.

Select the number that best represents the status of evaluating decisions in your organization:

5. None or one of the characteristics listed exists. (1 point)
6. Two of the characteristics listed exist. (2 points)
7. Three of the characteristics listed exist. (3 points)
8. All four of the characteristics listed exist. (4 points)

Score

Data Infrastructure

Data-literate organizations require a proper data infrastructure to be able to process, analyze, and act on data. Select the number that best represents the data infrastructure in your organization:

1. Data is collected on an ad hoc basis with disparate tools. (1 point)
2. There are a few people who understand how data is accessed in the organization. (2 points)
3. Data is accessible to the majority of the organization, but it is not readily discoverable, compliant, understood, or actionable throughout the organization. (3 points)
4. There’s trusted centralized storage with quality data that is discoverable, trusted, understood by the business, and accessible. (4 points)

Score

Data Strategy

Data-literate organizations require a solid data strategy to define how they manage data as a strategic asset. Select the number that best represents the data strategy in your organization:

1. No strategy in place. (1 point)
2. Departments have their own data strategies. (2 points)
3. Organization-wide data strategy. (3 points)
4. An organization-wide data strategy with its own organization, leader (CDO), and budget. (4 points)

Score

Data Governance

Data-literate organizations require an effective data governance strategy to ensure the data is usable and protected so that it is trusted. Select the number that best represents the data governance in your organization:

1. There are no data quality rules and processes and no documented strategy for data governance. There is no centralized approach to data, leading to redundant data. (1 point)
2. Various departments have implemented rules and processes for data quality and governance, but nothing exists across the entire organization. (2 points)
3. A centralized approach to data quality and governance exists, but either not all the departments utilize it or the centralized approach is only used for specific projects. (3 points)
4. A centralized approach to data quality and governance exists, and the entire organization has embraced it, providing users with a trusted single source of truth when it comes to data and insights. (4 points)

Score

Data Access/Data Democratization

The following characteristics apply to how employees within data-literate organizations access data:

1. Data is accessible across the organization to use with self-service analytics tools.
2. Internal and external integration.
3. Defined schemas of inputs.
4. Identifiable catalog of datasets.
5. Derivability of data.

Select the number that best represents the status of data access in your organization:

6. None or one of the characteristics listed exists. (1 point)
7. Two of the characteristics listed exist. (2 points)
8. Three or four of the characteristics listed exist. (3 points)
9. All five of the characteristics listed exist. (4 points)

Score

Analytics Maturity

Data-literate organizations leverage the full range of analytic capabilities to help come up with insights. These range from more simple descriptive analytics to more advanced predictive and prescriptive analytics. Select the number that best represents the analytics maturity in your organization:

1. Basic analytics is used in some parts of the organization, but not everywhere. The analytics are typically in the form of descriptive analytics via ad hoc reporting on historical data. (1 point)
2. Analytics includes diagnostic analytics as well. (2 points)
3. Analytics includes predictive analytics as well. (3 points)
4. Analytics includes prescriptive analytics as well. (4 points)

Score

Tools

The following tools and capabilities should exist within a data-literate organization:

1. Data Storage Tools
2. Data Integration Tools
3. Master Data Management Tools
4. Data Mining Tools
5. Data Catalog
6. Data Visualization Tools
7. Analytics Tools
8. Advanced Analytic Tools
9. Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning
10. Decision Intelligence Tools

Select the number that best represents the status of tools and capabilities in your organization:

11. Up to 3 of the tools and capabilities listed exist. (1 point)
12. 4 or 5 of the tools and capabilities listed exist. (2 points)
13. 6 or 8 of the tools and capabilities listed exist. (3 points)
14. 9 or 10 of the tools and capabilities listed exist. (4 points)

Score

Integrations

Having the right tools and technology is important, but data-literate organizations require that those tools and technologies be integrated into the workflow of the users. This helps empower employees by bringing the insights to them in an environment they are used to, rather than them having to switch between multiple applications.

Select the number that best represents the maturity of technology integrations in your organization:

1. Data and insights are provided manually in the form of reports. Very little integration exists. (1 point)
2. Some levels of automated reports and dashboards exist within the organization, but they are not embedded; rather, they are emailed. (2 points)
3. A few key analytics are embedded directly into workflows and applications. The rest are handled via manual or automated reports and dashboards. (3 points)
4. The majority of analytic capabilities are embedded directly into workflows and applications that the users use. (4 points)

Score

Learning Offerings

Data-literate organizations provide various learning options for their employees to upskill their data literacy. Select the number that best represents the maturity and diversity of data literacy learning offerings in your organization:

1. No offerings are provided or recommended. (1 point)
2. Third-party offerings are recommended but they must be completed on your own time. (2 points)
3. Offerings are built into the company’s L&D programs and certain employees are allowed to take them during work hours (but not all employees). (3 points)
4. Organization-wide data upskilling programs are open and available to all employees to take during work hours. (4 points)

Score

Content Included

The following types of learning content should exist within a data-literate organization:

1. Learning about data and analytics tools and technology.
2. Learning about industry and business knowledge.
3. Learning about organizational knowledge.
4. Learning about soft skills.

Select the number that best represents the status of data literacy learning content in your organization:

5. Data and analytics tools and technology training only. (1 point)
6. Data and analytics tools and technology training plus either industry, business, organizational knowledge, or soft skill training. (2 points)
7. Data and analytics tools and technology training plus two of the following: industry, business, organizational knowledge, or soft skill training. (3 points)
8. All four types of learning content exist. (4 points)

Score

Levels and Assessments

A data-literate organization has learning offerings that contain various learning levels to allow individuals to learn what they need at the time (that is, awareness, understanding, application, and expertise). Select the number that best represents the levels of data literacy learning offered in your organization:

1. No learning levels. Just one level of training. (1 point)
2. Two learning levels (for example, basic and advanced) exist but there’s no assessment to validate you learned what you needed at the current level. (2 points)
3. Three or more learning levels exist but there’s no assessment to validate you learned what you needed at the current level. (3 points)
4. Three or more learning levels exist with an assessment to validate what you learned at each level. (4 points)

Score

Community

Data-literate organizations provide mechanisms for employees to get informal learning and ask questions to peers in their moment of need. This can include forums, a coach or mentor, or a community of practice, as examples. Select the number that best represents the support for data literacy communities in your organization:

1. Forums exist but no one is accountable for monitoring them. (1 point)
2. Forums exist and there are employees dedicated to monitoring them. (2 points)
3. A coaching or mentoring program for data literacy exists. (3 points)
4. Communities of practice or similar exist. (4 points)

Score

Learning Delivery Options

Data-literate organizations should provide multiple delivery options for employees to consume data-literate training. Those delivery options can include the following:

1. Instructor-led
2. Self-paced
3. Workshops
4. Webinars
5. Blended learning

Select the number that best represents the status of learning delivery options in your organization:

6. None exist. (1 point)
7. One or two exist. (2 points)
8. Three exist. (3 points)
9. Four or five exist. (4 points)

Score

Knowledge Management Practices

Data-literate organizations provide a mechanism to capture the insights, knowledge, and wisdom of employees in an organizational knowledge base. Select the number that best represents the maturity of knowledge management in your organization:

1. No mechanism exists. (1 point)
2. A mechanism exists, but only in certain departments. (2 points)
3. A mechanism exists for the entire organization, but adoption is low. (3 points)
4. A mechanism exists for the entire organization, and the entire organization uses it. (4 points)

Score