Building Your Data Restaurant: Establishing a Data and Analytics Strategy

Session Abstract: In today’s higher education environment, establishing a data and analytics strategy is key to institutional success. Although many of us recognize its importance, we often struggle with ways to explain the concept and how to begin the journey. By utilizing an analogy equating the components of a data governance strategy with a restaurant kitchen, this session provides a framework for explaining somewhat complex concepts in nontechnical terms and provides an illustrative example of how the challenge of establishing a data and analytics strategy can be approached. From sourcing ingredients (identifying data sources) to building out the menu (developing a report catalog), the larger process can be broken down into smaller, more manageable steps. By using our own journey as an example, we will talk about the successes and challenges we have faced along the way and how improving partnerships with other offices on campus is helping advance our efforts to establish our data strategy.

Keywords: data governance, analytics, strategy, planning