Concluding Thoughts

The overall intent of this chapter was to share a best-practice approach to linking various streams of data so that such linkages can be used for enhanced decision support. At the very least, we hope the reader can walk away from our discussion with an appreciation that such analyses require both—careful “art” blended with meticulous “science.” The linkage process has low awareness and appreciation in the marketplace. In our experience, most such projects do not fail because they selected the wrong analytical tool for their purpose. Instead, an inability to follow a systematic yet customizable process often leads to such failure. For example, a lack of support from senior management is one of the most common and earliest warning signs that we witness. When such support is missing, inordinate amounts of effort are spent to assemble the appropriate stakeholders, and to get them to participate in the research project. Similarly, we strongly recommend that data limitations, if any, should be understood earlier in the process to allow for realistic expectations setting.