BLUF

Digital data is increasingly important to assist in decision making, and organisations recognise that accessing, interrogating and applying data requires the skills of data specialists.

Summary

In a large and technically driven workplace, such as in the ADF, the tendency is to apply data to assist decision-making. This article makes the following points:

  • The amount of digital data that exists is growing exponentially. 
  • To exploit this data, we increasingly need professionals who understand the basics of data science, big data, and data analytics. 
  •  Data science combines statistics, mathematics, programming, problem-solving, data capture, and the activity of data cleansing, preparing, and aligning data. 
  •  Big data are volumes of data that cannot be processed effectively with the current applications.
  • Skills required are programming, analysis, creativity and business acumen. 
  • Data analytics involves applying an algorithmic or mechanical process to derive insights and running through several data sets to look for meaningful correlations.
  • Skills required are programming, data intuition, mathematical and communication.

 

Learn more about the management, application and analysis of digital data.

References