Join us for the Business Analysis Conference Europe, 16 – 18 September, London, in partnership with AssistKD, BCT, The Chartered Institute of IT and the IIBA UK. Registration is now open and if you book by 21 June you can...

The Importance Of NFRs Adrian Reed When considering buying or designing a new product, it is often the functionality that dominates the conversation. Cast your mind back to the day that you got your first smartphone. If you’re anything like me, you...

Danette McGilvray | Publish Date: March 2024 A personal message from an IRMUK instructor to IRMUK readers. Hello! My name is Danette McGilvray.  I am a data quality expert, consultant, instructor, and author of Executing Data Quality Projects: Ten Steps...

Data Governance & Master Data Management Conference Europe, 11 – 14 March 2024 | Finalists Announced for the Data Governance Best Practice Awards by IRM UK IRM UK is delighted to announce the finalists for the prestigious Data Governance Best Practice...

We share our top 6 tips Something we often hear from other BAs working in multi-disciplinary Agile teams is that their work sometimes seems invisible. Or at least, less visible when compared to other professions. To put that in context,...

John Gøtze & Ksenija Bickova, EA Fellows ApS When we teach Enterprise Architecture, we always talk a lot about coherency, how “things” (people, processes, and technologies) are interconnected and intertwined, and how everything is related. That to us is what...

IRM UK offers online training courses, curated and led by industry experts. By attending one of our training courses, you will not only enhance your skills but also advance in your professional growth. In the upcoming year, we are delighted...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Agenda Unveiled for Business Change & Transformation Conference Europe 2024 Co-Located with AI in Transformation and Service Design Conferences London, UK – February 19, 2024 – IRM UK is thrilled to announce the release of the agenda...

IRM UK is pleased to announce that submissions are now open for the 2024 Data Governance Conference Europe Best Practices Award! Submission Deadline is Friday 2nd February 2024 Only one nomination per organisation. The award is given to the practitioners...

Call for Speaker Now Open! Deadline Friday 26 January 2024. IRM UK invites you to participate in the 23rd Enterprise Architecture & Business Process Management Conference Europe, 3 – 6 June 2024, in Central London. This event will feature the...

IRM UK proudly unveils the comprehensive agenda for the highly anticipated Data Governance & Master Data Management Conference Europe, taking place from March 11 to March 14, 2024, in London. This four-day event promises a transformative experience, offering attendees an...

Wouldn’t it be great if it became second nature at PIC to make decisions based on readily accessible, well managed and trusted data? In this short training course we will explore why data matters to PIC and how we can...

Nicola Askham, November 16, 2023 In the rapidly evolving landscape of data management, a term has emerged that is simultaneously intriguing and confusing: Data Mesh. If you find yourself puzzled by this concept and its implications for, you’re not alone....

Join us on Tuesday, December 5th 2023 – 10:30 AM (GMT) Sponsored by Join us for an insightful panel discussion on how the AI revolution is reshaping the landscape of Enterprise Architecture (EA). In this engaging session, our panel of...

CALL FOR SPEAKERS NOW OPEN The call for speakers for the Business Change & Transformation Conference, 23-24 April 2024, London is now open. The deadline to submit your entry is 8 December 2023. Join us and be one of the...

Mark your calendars for The Data Governance and Master Data Management Conference Europe 11 – 14 March 2024, London. Join us and our visionaries who will inform and inspire Data Management and Data Governance professionals from across Europe and beyond. The Conference...

Data products are all the rage. Based on the hundreds of recent conversations I’ve had at data events and online so far in 2023, the implementation of data products is being strongly considered by many data leaders from across the...

By George Staw, Corporate Metadata Architect, Alchemy Data Solutions Ltd “To understand a world that changes we must revisit our myths, we must subject them to criticism” Umberto Galimberti – “The Myths of our Time” There is a giant mystery...

November 2nd | 10.30am – 11.30am GMT To effectively navigate changes, Enterprise and Solution Architecture teams need to interlink to enhance an organisation’s architectural agility and ensure a competitive edge. These teams must adopt agile principles and practices that drive...

The roles of all architects are changing. Architects, from enterprise to solution and process architects, are no longer viewed as ‘nice to have’ or as ‘academics’. Enterprise architecture is becoming a strategic capability to address digital transformation challenges and architects...

Dr Janet Bastiman, 03 November 2022 Dr Janet Bastiman, the Chief Data Scientist at Napier, explores how trust works, why we rightly find it hard to place belief in AI and how system developers can help create and improve our...

Nigel Turner, September, 2023 Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) have become the focus of global news headlines over the past months. Pessimists fear that the growth of AI/ ML poses a serious threat to the future of humanity,...

Danette McGilvray, September, 2023 Anyone remember the 2008 movie Get Smart? Our hero, Maxwell Smart, is an eager analyst promoted to CONTROL field agent with the assignment to uncover the master plan of KAOS, their enemy. During a briefing with...

By Felicity Cowie, Global Communications Trainer | Award-winning former BBC News & Panorama journalist  Do you feel dazzled, even overwhelmed by the amount of information you have to mentally download and then share about the scale of the change you...

Sponsored by: Join us on the 27th September from 1.30pm – 2.30pm BST In an ever-evolving business landscape, enterprises face unprecedented challenges in effectively managing their architecture and optimizing business processes. As technological advancements accelerate, the need for agility and...

Nicola Askham | July 27, 2023 Embarking on a journey in Data Governance can feel isolating and overwhelming. It’s very common in this field to struggle to find a sense of connection and understanding in your day-to-day work. But there...

Adrian Reed | Blackmetric Business Solutions When it comes to requirements analysis, functional requirements tend to take the limelight. After all, what the product does tends to be a key area of focus, and the functionality that it will provide...

Nicola Askham | 13th July, 2023 Data culture is the collective behaviours and beliefs of people who value, practice and encourage the use of data to improve decision-making. As a result, data is woven into the operations, mindset and identity...

The highly anticipated IRM UK Enterprise Architecture and Business Process Management Conference 2023 is set to take place from 9 – 12 October at etc venues in London. This prestigious event, organised by IRM UK, a leading provider of conferences,...

Nicola Askham | 15th June, 2023 Today’s blog has been inspired by a debate I saw on LinkedIn where somebody had suggested that we really don’t need data owners because they’re really hard to find and we could use process...

Unlocking the Potential of Modern Enterprise Architecture with MEGA Webinar hosted by IRMUK. As the world is changing, companies have to consider adapting and transforming their business models and organisations to tackle competition and enhance their resiliency. Daniel Hebda, Chief...

Bethan Barnfield | Marketing Manager at BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT While technology and jobs have evolved rapidly in recent years, digital skills in the UK are struggling to keep pace. In 2020, the Digital Sector contributed £142.3 billion to the...

SPEAKER INTERVIEW – Ahead of our Business Analysis Conference Europe, September 18 – 20 2023, in London we find out more about Jenny Gledhill a Senior Business Analyst at The University of Warwick. Jenny will speak on Monday the 18th...

SPEAKER INTERVIEW – Ahead of our Business Analysis Conference Europe, September 18 – 20 2023, in London we find out more about Chris Pyatt, Senior Practice Business Analyst, DWP Digital. Chris will speak on Tuesday the 19th of September about...

SPEAKER INTERVIEW – Ahead of our Business Analysis Conference Europe, September 18 – 20 2023, in London we find out more about Al Asma Begum, a Senior Business Analyst, at BBC. Al Asma Begum will be speaking on Tuesday, September...

SPEAKER INTERVIEW – Ahead of our Business Analysis Conference Europe, September 18 – 20 2023, in London we find out more about Michael Andersson, Head of Technology Analysis & Visualization at Ericsson. Michael will be speaking on Tuesday, September 19th...

Are you looking for a way to give back to the BA community? Do you want to help inform and inspire BAs of the future?  Then check out the BA School Day Initiative! The BA School Day Initiative is a...

Identifying Data Owners is something that many people struggle with when they are starting out in Data Governance. When multiple different teams use that data it can often confuse matters, which is why I think this is a good question...

With AI being the most talked about technology trend at the moment, Nicola Askham, The Data Governance Coach interviews the most famous AI tool to date; ChatGTP for its thoughts on Data Governance and why it is so important to...

By Nicola Askham, The Data Governance Coach, Nicola Askham Ltd There have been so many advances in easily accessible AI technologies recently that I am getting lots of questions about why you do need to worry about Data Governance first....

By Dr Irina Steenbeek, Managing Director, Data Crossroads This is the first article of the series: “Choosing Data Management IT Tools.” In this article, I will discuss the following: Key Market Trends The IT tools and technologies market is one...

By Malcolm Hawker, Thought Leader | CDO | Data Strategy | Master Data Management | Data Governance | Host of the CDO Matters Podcast What would happen if CDOs consciously decided to delay efforts on defining a data strategy, choosing...

Interview with Tiankai Feng, Head of Product Data Governance at Adidas by Nicola Askham, The Data Governance Coach, Nicola Askham Ltd, March 23, 2023 Tiankai has been working in data all his career with experience in Data Analytics, Data Science...

Whatever it is you are working on, it is almost  certainly made up of many, sometimes very many, pieces. Each of the pieces interacts with other pieces to achieve some valuable result. This means that there is a need to...

The Crucial Art of Pre-Project Problem Analysis Adrian Reed, Principal Consultant, Blackmetric Business Solutions A common problem that affects projects is that of scope creep.  It’s very easy for a situation to occur where features and changes are suggested that...

By Ed Metera, Sr. Project Manager | Instructor | Book Author | Founder of ProcessModelingAdvisor.com Any process model is so much more than a flowchart. It is an abstraction of current or future real-world operations. Process modeling is one of...

By Dr Irina Steenbeek, Data Management Practitioner & Coach  We, data management professionals, often use the term “data management framework.”  But do we all have the same understanding of its meaning and the various approaches to its implementation? In this...

By Nicola Askham, The Data Governance Coach Such are the demands of modern business it is important to understand that we cannot put the same level of data governance onto all data that we have in our organisation. There is...

21 December, 2022 | Irina Steenbeek Here more from Irina at our Master Data Management & Data Governance Conference on 9 – 12 May 2023. A data lineage initiative is on the agenda of many data management and business professionals....

We’re pleased to announce that the agenda for the Business Change & Transformation Conference Europe, co-located with the brand-new Digital Workplace Conference, 20 – 22 March 2023 is now live. >>View agenda>>Book by 28 February and save 10% Are you involved in change and/or...

By Edmund Metera, Process Modeling Advisor The Beautiful Game Whether you call it football or soccer, “the Beautiful Game” as it is widely known, has simple rules of play. But playing soccer is another matter. It is a highly dynamic,...

IRM UK are excited to announce that the Business Change & Transformation Conference Europe will be co-located with the brand-new Digital Workplace Conference and is taking place in London from 20 – 22 March 2023. The theme for the 2023...

By Nicola Askham, The Data Governance Coach. One: There are different understandings of the terminology within the same organisation Most organisations are full of lots of jargon and terminology which can mean different things to different people. It’s all very...

By Danette McGilvray, Granite Falls Consulting, Inc Most of us are familiar with the phrase “It’s a Small World” made famous by the Disney song of the same name. We hear it often enough that it feels trite.  But there...

By Line Karkov, Senior Business Analyst at DM – fagforening The first time I attempted using specification by example, I failed. A couple of years ago, I was the product owner for a development team of external developers from a...

By Nick Malik, Digital Transformation Strategist, Chief Architect, former CIO, Servant Leader, Infosys My colleague Gideon Slifkin posted recently on LinkedIn, listing many of the responsibilities that he attributes to the Architecture Review Board (ARB). The concept of an ARB...

An immensely useful invention. By Michiel Heyns van Staden, Data Strategy, Solutions and Analytics Lead, Absa Group Being able to visualise often complex information in a succinct way, with the added bonus of allowing end users to interactively engage with...

By Nicola Askham, The Data Governance Coach, Nicola Askham Ltd This is a very short and succinct question, and I thought the answer was likely to be the same. However, when I was sent this question, I was very surprised...

By Lisa Bondesio, Founder of Chiridion Have you noticed that the world is spinning a little faster?  Are you prepared for change? Is your organisation transformation ready?   In today’s business climate, change is rapid and often disruptive. Competitive advantage can...

By Nicola Askman, DataIQ 100 2022 | Award Winning Data Governance Training | Consultant | Coaching | Data Governance Expert | D.A.T.A Founding Committee Like people and industries across the world people in data and tech are doing everything they...

By MH van Staden MIT Big Data Science in progress Data Strategy, Solutions & Analytics Lead, Everyday Banking Insights do not come from data. Often business stakeholders will cast their eyes to the data team looking to learn something new...

Article by Irina Steenbeek, Managing Director, Data Crossroads. We, data management professionals, often use the term “data management framework.” But do we all have the same understanding of its meaning and the various approaches to its implementation? In this article,...

Article by Irina Steenbeek, Managing Director, Data Crossroads. Data lineage is on the radars of business and data management professionals now more than ever. Many companies understand how necessary it is. But this understanding does not often lead to immediate...

By Whynde Kuehn, S2E and Biz Arch Mastery Founder | Strategy to Reality Author | Passionate Advocate for Strategy Execution + Business Architecture As a global discipline, business architecture is here and here to stay.  It has been gaining traction...

By Nicola Askham, The Data Governance Coach Data shouldn’t be a wild and untamed thing, but sometimes it is just that – wild… and untamed. And unfortunately for our friend Tim, he’s about to find out just how wild and...

Everybody is doing it. Having individuals with data specific roles, or even entire teams focusing on data functions, has become commonplace in many organisations.  It is now common practice to have some level of data collection, transformation, storage, analysis, reporting...

Written by Michael D. Barwise BSc, CEng, CITP, MBCS, MCIIS, LCCP, FRSABusiness Information Risk Management Consulting Probably the greatest single challenge for any transformation programme is risk management. Every phase of the programme is likely to consist of multiple independently...

By Ed Metera, Program Manager, Instructor, Book Author and Founder of ProcessModelingAdvisor.com Business Process Normalization[1] is an analysis technique that leads to sound, modern business process and workflow structures. Business analysts, process analysts, systems analysts, and process owners use Business...

Published by Technics Publications Book Description‘Business Architecture: Collecting, Connecting and Correcting the Dots ’is the latest book for Roger Burlton. It deals with ways to design a business so that it can get better at continuous enterprise level change. Since...

Following is an excerpt from Executing Data Quality Projects: Ten Steps to Quality Data and Trusted Information™, 2nd Ed. (Elsevier/Academic Press, 2021) by Danette McGilvray. What can we do to ensure the quality of the data on which our world...

By MH van Staden, Data Analytics Leader of the Year 2020, Speaker, Writer, Mentor and Coach What is this AI everybody is talking about?  Well that probably depends on who you ask.  For some the term artificial intelligence entails the...

By Dr. Barry Devlin Register for Essentials of Data Warehouses, Lakes and BI in Digital Business – Live Streaming only, 15-16 March 2022 What is your biggest information problem?  If there was one single behaviour within business or IT that...

Article written by Ben Herzberg, Chief Scientist of Satori We live in a data-driven world. From the first moment we learn to speak, we are inundated with data: numbers, measurements, and labels. When we are in need of assistance, numbers...