Data-Driven Storytelling

The course focuses on building a story as a key skill for Data Science, emphasizing effective storytelling by drilling down to fine-grained details and staging messages for downstream points. The importance of relevant data storytelling is highlighted, with an emphasis on getting beyond platitudes and 'motherhood & apple pie.' Course correlations include SDLC vs. SDM, where the professor describes standard phases that systems go through from inception to retirement, and methodologies that manage those phases differently. Big Data is positioned as a primary focus for the course.

Question Format
Each question poses a theme, a “theme discussion” [TD] positioned with a course activity,
and a list of principles [TP-n] associated with the theme and activity; albeit, some warrant a
book be written to fully explore the topic. The TD’s and TP’s are only addressing a few of
the aspects. The TD’s and TP’s are in blue font. Hints are given in red font, and green fonts
designate the header for your Course Correlation answers.
For each question:
 Explain how the theme, explanation, and principles tie, or don’t tie, to their associated
course materials. Remember the professor played the dual roles of stakeholder and
project champion to help identify some of these course correlations.
 Explain how the theme, explanation, and principles is relevant, or is not relevant, to
our real-world issues.
 Ensure you clearly designate your position. Outside of clearly stating “I concur”, “I
don’t concur”, or “I partially concur”, you can label the text as follows:
o “[C]” for “Concur”
o “[DC]” for “Don’t Concur”
o “[PC]” for “Partially Concur”
 The sample question provides examples of the various techniques mentioned.
 In the sample, take note of “tracing” in the responses to the Theme Discussion [TD]
or Theme Principles [TP-n]. This helps the professor not “guess” where you are
addressing the points. It is highly recommended you follow suite to ensure you get
credit for coverage. Also, see how the sample conveys complete and concise
thoughts.
 The sample provides two different tracing styles:
o Course Correlations shows an inter-laced style,
o In the sample questions, “Real-World Correlations” shows a segmented style.
o Use either style that works for your approach.
1 P1.05-(Sample) Theme: Need for Systems Analysis and Design Is Not Dead
Category: C
Theme Discussion:
The course centers on Systems Analysis and Design (SA&D), which has been deemed
by some an unnecessary discipline or practice in system engineering practices (i.e., some
engineering programs do not offer courses, and until recently, there was limited job
demand). However, Systems Analyst is rising as an in-demand job1. The professor
believes this is partially due to industry’s realization that the skill and practice deficit
contributes to the struggles that IT projects have in delivering products on schedule and
within budget.
The course introduced both mature and nascent approaches to deliver the necessary rigor
in Systems Analysis and Design products in a streamlined manner to meet the pace and
demands of today’s initiatives.
Theme Principles:
1. Structured Systems Analysis and Design (SSAD, or some may sarcastically call
this “So SAD” for legacy or waterfall approaches) provide value because they
1 http://www.careercast.com/jobs-rated/jobs-rated-report-2016-ranking-200-jobs

addressed similar challenges and have been thoroughly “tested” (i.e., they have
been heavily used”) - where some failed and some worked.
2. Systems Analysis and Design (SA&D) practices can reduce overall project
delivery time and help deliver products that are more likely to meet consumer
needs.
3. Technical and non-technical efforts suffer from the lack of SA&D practices;
however, there is a need and room for innovation and automation in SA&D
techniques.
Course Correlations
I concur with the theme discussion since it is the premise of the textbook. The
supplemental readings focus on new and fairly developed approaches. The professor’s
approaches are indeed still very nascent, but do convey tactics that re-invigorate
traditional approaches to re-purpose their lessons learned to address “conflict” from
disparate stakeholder communities by “reflecting” their positions. [TD, TP-1] [C]
SA&D’s ultimate goal is to save time and errors in coding, implementation and
maintenance phases. One such example is the cost of requirement errors2 as shown in
the picture below, where requirements cost exponentially more to fix in the later phases
of development. Thus, SA&D is beneficial to get requirements as correct as possible,
while avoiding “Analysis Paralysis”. [TP-2]
[C] Another example is the Schematics gaining consensus on the major problems’
impact and how the corresponding solutions address the issues via being explained by
the Transition Message Points (TMP’s). [TP-2, TP-3]
Our Real-world Correlations (for another style of referencing)
[TD] [C] The traditional approach to SA&D (e.g. Waterfall) takes far too long and too
much effort to fit within the time and resource cycles of today’s environments. However,
we still need the results that the more rigorous methods provides to make the
development and implementation phases more effective.
[TP-1] I partially concur that challenges that SSAD are similar to today’s challenges.
While the legacy approaches addressed new issues, the issues today introduce many
more complexities. However, the “testing” aspect does provide some creditability to the
viability of the methods.
2http://www.jucs.org:8080/ujs/jucs/Journal/Volume%2013/Issue_13_5/
realising_the_benefits_of/
jucs_13_5_0669_0678_hall.html;internal&action=buildframes.action&Parameter=14681119
79296&ctx=eKS

[TP-2] [C] Many projects, IT and otherwise, suffer from a void of basic analysis of the
needs in the quest to see results quickly only to end up swirling (i.e., activity does not
equal progress).
[TP-3] [C] The innovation to track the concepts (i.e., the professor demonstrated this in
the early phases of the class project from the raw requirement sources (e.g., interviews,
document analysis) provides the ability to trace which requirements are covered and how
the solutions correlate back to the raw requirements. However, this requires
extraordinary manual effort that needs to be automated to be tenable in an actual project.
2 P1.15-Theme: Solving Wicked Problems (or the “Middle Riddle”)
Category: C
Theme Discussion:
We discussed wicked problems throughout the semester, and referenced the problems as
the “Middle Riddle”. Our projects touched on this to an extent in having to properly
scope the project to develop the artifacts.
Theme Principles:
1. Today’s issues must address the multiple perspectives, dimensions and objectives
from disparate stakeholder communities.
2. Addressing the multiple perspectives, dimensions and objectives requires multiple
skills and disciplines that require multiple people to cover the skills.
Hints:
 Remember this diagram and discussion
 Consider how many project have stakeholders talking past each other, and not
understanding each other’s perspectives.
Helps:
 Given you concur, dealing with middle riddle takes special attention to deal w/
the complexities. Consider what cause these complexities (e.g. competing
objectives, different terms, different culture, etc.). Consider the “special
attention” needed (i.e., the TD and TP’s are provide some ideas).
 Given you don’t, traditional techniques can still handle the complexities.
Course Correlations
[Your Position]

3 P3.06-Theme: Innovating Systems Analysis and Design (& Engineering)
Category: C
Theme Discussion:
The course title uses the term “needs” vs. “requirements” to focus more on stakeholders
communicating on what has be addressed before dealing with contracts, lines of
authority, resources, etc. In doing so, the typical functional requirements were not
addressed in the form of the typical “the system shall” statements.
This course conveys what the professor calls an “Eye-Exam Approach” to requirements
engineering. With the vast uncertainty in our environments, there is oftentimes no clear
and obvious solution. Thus, the class techniques have stakeholders perpetually work
through “is A better or is B better” in order to ascertain the best fit to address scenarios.
CASE tools are a comprehensive means to automate the engineering process; however,
the overhead and time investment to create the results outweighs the actual benefits of
using the tools. Lightweight mechanics are needed to help tie the project pieces together.
Such innovations can rapidly chase out certain levels of ambiguity, confusion, conflict,
etc. to better stage the formal requirements processes and methodologies to more
accurately capture and deliver to the consumers’ expectations throughout the Systems
Development and Engineering Life Cycles.
Theme Principles:
1. Establishing a common vision among the disparate stakeholder communities at a
contextual system map level increases the chances of project success and
acceptance.
2. Creating ‘living’ models to reflect how technology and operations co-exist is an
effective means to bridge the business/mission and technical communities.
Hints:
 Reference the iterations of the schematics, and the CaLC Modeling paper
 Consider how many projects swirl because the business is not understood.
Helps:
 Consider the different approach we have taken apart from the standard “The system
shall statements” and formalized methodologies (outside of DFDs).
 Remember the purpose of the project artifacts in getting stakeholders on the same
page
Course Correlations

[Your Position]
4 P3.07-Theme: Building a Story
Category: C
Theme Discussion:
The class project focuses on telling a story, which is a key skill for Data Science3. There
was a great deal of emphasis placed on the sections (e.g., Background, Purpose,
Description) staging their respective message for the downstream message points.
Special emphasis was also placed on maintaining continuity and clear line-of-sight in the
messaging between the artifacts.
Theme Principles:
1. Effective storytelling entails drilling beyond the surface platitudes to the fine-
grained, relevant details.
2. A storyline should hang together around 3-5 central storytelling points.
Hints:
 [I give you some of the answer; add your position(s)]
 Consider how many times you hear “motherhood and apple-pie” platitudes that have
no substance, nothing actionable.
Helps:
 Remember how much emphasis was placed only having relevant story points on the
project artifacts, and how the various points were staged (i.e., save the right point
for the right slide).
 Also, remember the push to get beyond the platitudes and “motherhood & apple
pie”.
Course Correlations
 The schematics provided a story-telling mechanism to gain consensus on the major
problems and how the project solution was intending to address the problems, which
is not trivial in today’s complex environments. The DFDs depicted interface points
and scope. The AoA provided a defensible and easy to explain mechanism for
decisions and recommendations. The requirements schedule and cost / benefit
sections address programmatic necessities. The Design artifacts provide a translation
of the business needs into a technical language that developers can better translate
into code.
[You add your perspectives]
3 http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/09/building-data-science-teams.html

5 P1.06-Theme: SDLC vs. SDM
Category: C
Theme Discussion:
The professor describes a Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) as the standard
phases that systems go through from inception to retirement, and a Systems
Development Methodology (SDM) as methodologies that manage the phases differently
(i.e., any SDM paces through the phases in varying degrees, just how they go through the
phases is different).
Waterfall dictates that one phase is not started until the previous phase is completed
typically for the entire scope of the project; however, this hard phase boundaries and
strict linear progression is rarely adhered to in practice because it is not pragmatic to do
so. Iterative, or spiral, development breaks the full project into smaller stages with a
go/no-go risk assessment that identifies the challenges and estimates to be refined on a
small scales before proceeding to larger, more costly later stages. Agile stresses that
small, repetitive deliveries are made while requirements are constantly being refined.
Theme Principles:
1. Each project has unique characteristics, and it is vital that the proper SDM be used
accordingly; thus, engineering environments should support multiple SDM’s.
Presuming one size fits all increases the chances of project difficulties and
possibly failure.
2. Utilizing any given SDM does not guarantee project success (i.e., Waterfall
projects have failed, Lean projects have failed, Agile projects have failed).
Hints:
 Look how Scaled Agile (http://www.scaledagileframework.com/) seems to mesh
legacy (e.g. Waterfall looking) approaches w/ Agile. Also consider that Waterfall can
be done very effectively, Spiral Development is an in-between Waterfall and Agile?
…
 Remember characteristics of Wicked Problems
Helps:
 Revisit the purpose of the SDLC and SDM. We discussed and exercised the
engineering steps in the project.
 Recall how the methodical approach to your project helped unpack the needs and
help decisions along the way.
Course Correlations
 [Your Position]

6 P2.01-Theme: Data Focus
Category: C
Theme Discussion:
Data is positioned as a primary focus for the course. Specifically, Big Data in the
discussions, and Data Flow Diagrams and Data Models in the project work.
While data has many challenging aspects, our organizations must become more “data-
literate”, which is a long journey to re-tool the personnel within the organization.
Theme Principles:
1. Data is the most important aspect as compared to the User Interface and
Application layers
2. Big Data makes data as this “most important” aspect especially unwieldy to
harness.
Hints:
 Remember “stability” discussions in the recordings.
 Revisit the “wicked problem” discussions in classes and your answers in the earlier
question.
Helps:
 Recall discussions how Big Data introduces new challenges and opportunities to the
traditional analysis and design methodologies.
Course Correlations
 [Your Position]