Tag: Jason Brownlee

Fresh Links Sundae – December 7, 2014 Edition

Fresh Links Sundae encapsulates information I have come across during the past week. Often they are from the people whose work I admire or resonate with me. I hope you will find these ideas thought-provoking at the minimum. Even better, I hope these ideas will, over time, help my fellow IT pros make better decisions, be awesome, and kick ass!

Having a functional architecture is a key to deriving IT values for any organization, and architecture calls for sound design principles. Bob Lewis recommends at least five areas to consider when putting together the design principles for your architecture. Ben Franklin, turkeys, and design principles (IS Survivor Publishing)

As we jump from one data analytics problem to another, we often need to get up to speed on a new dataset quickly. A classical and under-utilized approach for becoming familiar with the new data problem is Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA). Jason Brownlee explains the EDA techniques and tactics that you can use. Understand Your Problem and Get Better Results Using Exploratory Data Analysis (Machine Learning Mastery)

Verified inventory is one of the several key elements of IT assets management success. Martin Thompson shares techniques he has used in the past to verify hardware inventory. Verifying Asset Accuracy (The ITAM Review)

As business analysts, there will always be value in getting more done well and in less time. Laura Brandenburg talks about some of the most common time wasters she sees in business analysis. 5 Business Analyst Time-Wasters (Bridging the Gap)

For many organizations, an ITSM initiative often represents a major change, and Organizational Change Management (OCM) is the centerpiece to success. Mike DePolis discusses some of the most important aspects and actions to consider for an OCM effort in your organization. Project success with Organizational Change Management (OCR) (The ITSM Review)

Many organizations still perceive data quality projects to be a technical endeavor, but data quality requires an on-going, consistent change management effort. Such changes can often result in fear and resistance. Dylan Jones discusses ways to combat the fear and resistance to changes. Data quality mastery depends on change management essentials (The Data Roundtable)

Data or information Management within an organization can be at risk when data are in bad shape. Strong governance practices and stewardship can minimize risks and improve productivity. Pearl Zhu outlines the signals we should pay attention to when handling data governance within your organization. How to Capture the Signals of Data Governance Issues (Future of CIO)

Marshall Goldsmith believes how you define yourself will impact how successful you are at your job and even how happy you will be in life. He outlines four sources from which we can define our identity and encourages us to think about the considerations that go into how we define ourselves. Why You Should Get a Handle on Your Identity (Marshall Goldsmith Personal Blog)

Fresh Links Sundae – November 23, 2014 Edition

A baseline is necessary to gauge and to validate the results produced by machine learning algorithms. Jason Brownlee describes why we create a baseline prediction result and how to create a baseline in general and for specific problem types. How To Get Baseline Results And Why They Matter (Machine Learning Mastery)

From KDNuggets, Burtch Works details the top 9 data science skills that potential data scientists must have to be competitive in this growing marketplace from the perspective of a recruiter. 9 Must-Have Skills You Need to Become a Data Scientist (KDNuggets)

Accurate asset tracking and management can be an enormous task for any IT organization. In a four-part series, Marcel Shaw describes a three-tiered approach to assets management. IT Asset Management, a three-tiered approach IT Asset Management, a Three-Tiered Approach (Part 2 of 4) IT Asset Management, a Three Tiered Approach (Part 3 of 4) IT Asset Management, a Three-Tiered Approach (Part 4 of 4) (LANDESK Blog)

Bob Lewis points out many enterprise technical architecture management (ETAM) efforts suffer from the pitfall where it cannot keep up with the changes within the organization. He further suggests that perhaps an agile approach to ETAM will be necessary. Technical architecture’s irreducible core (IS Survivor Publishing)

A well-known problem troubleshooting and root-cause analysis technique has been the Five Why’s. John Allspaw argues that, for maximum learning effectiveness, we also need to ask more questions about the How’s. The infinite hows (O’Reilly Radar)

Every organization needs to assess its information security readiness from time to time and implement improvements or remediation when necessary. Chris Sell walks through the four steps that are critical for every information security gap analysis. How To Conduct An Information Security Gap Analysis (SunGard)

Although analytics projects are often at the top agenda for organizations these days, many of those organizations are still struggling to identify the business problems where analytics could generate measurable ROI. Pearl Zhu suggests the ways organizations can use to improve their analytics ROI. How can Organizations Improve their Analytics ROI (Future of CIO)

For most of us, it is easier to see our behavioral challenges in others than to see them in ourselves. From his own experience, Marshall Goldsmith discusses two important life lessons he had learned about addressing those challenges from within. 2 Life-Changing Lessons No One Ever Taught You (Marshall Goldsmith Personal Blog)

Fresh Links Sundae – November 2, 2014 Edition

Thomas Redman believes that managers should rarely take an important analysis at face value. He explains how data can be interpreted to tell one story but still fail to present the whole picture. When It Comes to Data, Skepticism Matters (Harvard Business Review)

Like all technology implementation efforts, cost benefits analysis should be part of a NoSQL implementation. William Vorhie explains what the two categories of benefit in NoSQL are and how to quantify them. Quantifying the Value of a NoSQL Project (Data Science Central)

Most of us think of taking meeting notes as merely a mundane transcription exercise. Bob Lewis would argue that taking and publishing the meeting notes is one of the most important jobs in a meeting. Notes about notes (IS Survivor Publishing)

Glen Alleman would advocate that, in order to make good decisions, we require good estimates. He explains five decision-making processes and how to incorporate sound estimating effort into those processes. Decision Making Without Estimates? (Herding Cats)

Understand the algorithm is a critical element of leveraging machine learning techniques effectively. Jason Brownlee outlines five ways to study and learn about machine learning algorithms. How to Study Machine Learning Algorithms (Machine Learning Mastery)

Many organizations do not have an organized approach to handling major IT incidents, and, as a result, they compromise their abilities to capture valuable lessons. Ryan Ogilvie discusses the four stages of a major incident handling and what challenges we need to overcome. Not Doing Proper Post Incident Reviews Could Haunt You (Service Management Journey)

Many organizations spend a great deal of effort on IT benchmarking but often get back the results that have little impact. Pearl Zhu discusses how to do benchmarking effectively in order to get the most impactful results from the effort. Is IT Benchmarking valuable or a Waste? (Future of CIO)

With the current and future landscape of tools, technologies, and processes, the IT environment has been changing in a fast and dramatic pace. Chris Riley discusses the challenges IT and Operations will face now and into 2015 and how to address those challenges. 6 Challenges Facing DevOps and Operations Teams in 2015 (logentries)

Fresh Links Sundae – October 19, 2014 Edition from #SMFUSION14

NOTE: This is an abbreviated post from FUSION 14 in Washington. DC. If you are there this week, I appreciate you coming out to support the Chapter and the Conference #SMFUSION14.

Roll over Dogbert’s Tech Support, the application economy is here by Robert Stroud (CA Technologies)

Your Relationship with Metrics by Mark Dalton (HDIConnect)

Problem Management – The value in not knowing by Ryan Ogilvie (Service Management Journey)

Where Art Thou Hadoop? by Svetlana Sicular (Gartner Blogs)

16 Options To Get Started and Make Progress in Machine Learning and Data Science by Jason Brownlee (Machine Learning Mastery)

How to re-balance a data migration project plan by Dylan Jones (The Data Roundtable)

Project Risk Management, PMBOK, DoD PMBOK and Edmund Conrow’s Book by Glen Alleman (Herding Cats)

What Peter Drucker Knew About 2020 by Rick Wartzman (Harvard Business Review)

Fresh Links Sundae – October 12, 2014 Edition

Much of the current big data and artificial intelligence work have been focusing on using a data-driven approach to answering or solve business problems. Michael Schrage discusses how the work in automated hypothesis might increasingly inspire tomorrow’s breakthrough innovation. Let Data Ask Questions, Not Just Answer Them (Harvard Business Review)

Selecting the right features or attributes is one key step in strengthening the effectiveness of a predictive analytics model. Jason Brownlee explains what feature selection is and outlines a handy checklist for machine learning model building. An Introduction to Feature Selection (Machine Learning Mastery)

“Organisations are far too quick to blame their software tools for their woes,” said Rob England. He also points out that processes and tools are rarely the main causes of an organization’s problem. Don’t blame the tool: squeeze the asset, fix the behaviour (The IT Skeptic) Rob England

Organizations often shy away from the zero-based budgeting (ZBB) method because they believe it means “budgeting from zero.” Shaun Callaghan, Kyle Hawke, and Carey Mignerey dispel the myths behind ZBB and explain why it is a sustainable alternative to cost management appropriate for many. Five myths (and realities) about zero-based budgeting (McKinsey & Company)

Steve Schlarman believes that data classification is an absolute core tenet of information security. He explains how to leverage business context for building an information security strategy. The Data Classification Curve (RSA Archer GRC)

A number of people believe we should all be using the DevOps approach to managing our IT services. Stuart Rance briefly discusses what is behind the DevOps movement and some DevOps ideas that he thinks will work for every category of IT service. DevOps isn’t only for startups (Optimal Service Management)

Even with their inherent drawbacks, passwords remain one highly effective mean of securing information and access. Keith Palmgren explains that good passwords need not be hard to remember and difficult to use. How to Build Complex Passwords and Avoid Easy Breaches (SANS Institute)

Project management is one key competency area that is critical to an organization’s success. In a 6-part series, Tim McClintock discusses the pitfalls that project managers should work hard to avoid. (Global Knowledge Training Blog)