{"id":11142,"date":"2022-06-15T15:24:44","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T14:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ee.yelkdev.site\/?p=11142"},"modified":"2024-12-10T02:37:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T02:37:00","slug":"supporting-austrade-data-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/our-thinking\/supporting-austrade-data-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting Austrade to embrace world-class data practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month, I had the great honour of being invited to speak at Austrade\u2019s Data Champions conference, a quarterly convention for the Federal Government\u2019s Australian Trade and Investment Commission.<\/p>\n

Serving a wide range of stakeholders\u2014both at home and internationally\u2014the Australian Trade and Investment Commission<\/a> (also known as Austrade) delivers services to grow Australia\u2019s economic prosperity. It\u2019s all about helping businesses go further, faster. Obviously, data plays a huge role in their approach to high quality service provision.<\/p>\n

To support the team in their excellent work, I was happy to deliver a brief presentation on the importance and value of data pipelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This included some of the new ways we think about, and work with, data at Equal Experts. Plus\u2014given Austrade\u2019s focus on \u2018connecting Australian businesses with the world\u2019\u2014some of our learnings from embedding leading data practice through our ongoing collaborations with Her Majesty\u2019s Revenue & Customs (HMRC)<\/a>; the United Kingdom\u2019s equivalent of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)<\/a>. Over a working partnership of many years, we\u2019re proud to note that Equal Experts is one of the top five resource providers for HMRC. We\u2019ve worked together on everything from cutting-edge fraud detection mechanisms to transitioning from physical infrastructure to the cloud.<\/p>\n

In contrast, this event was singularly focused and all about data.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the key points that seemed to resonate throughout the presentation.<\/p>\n

1. Data can\u2014and should\u2014be agile.<\/h2>\n

Historically, and in many large-scale organisations around the world today, there\u2019s a tendency to conceptualise and treat data in a certain way. In many instances, it\u2019s a case of approaching data without any sense of fluidity or immediacy.<\/p>\n

In the old world, data isn\u2019t something to be dynamically accessed. It\u2019s built up over time and then used to create reports retrospectively based on insights gleaned from the material. Additionally, there\u2019s a prevailing conception that data is slow to establish; you need to build up expanses of information before any meaningful implementation.<\/p>\n

In fact, the opposite is true. With the right approach, you can act much more fluidly and create real business value in real-time.<\/p>\n

For example, we design and implement data pipelines with highly reusable patterns; this ensures organisations can rapidly create new data pipelines as use-cases or business requirements evolve. And they do, and should, evolve.<\/p>\n

If something changes in your organisation\u2014the source of data, the use case associated with the data being collected, the utility of how or why that data is important\u2014then you need to evolve your pipeline(s) to reflect those developments. This is where the concept of agile data practice comes to the fore.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a valuable practice of continually reviewing data pipelines, which many organisations fail to realise. Data collection and collation isn\u2019t a set-and-forget proposition, unless your organisation itself is comfortable in stasis.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We typically approach data practice through the lens of agile delivery, with practices and rituals such as:<\/p>\n