Chapter 7 - The People Challenge: Building Data Literacy

Abstract

This chapter addresses the skills, knowledge, and experience people require to create, use, and interpret data. Data literacy is the ability to read, understand, interpret, and learn from data in different contexts and to communicate about data with other people. The people challenge is both a skills challenge and a knowledge challenge. No single individual can know everything about an organization’s data. But, together, people can solve more problems in better ways if they understand data as a construct, recognize the risks associated with data production and use, cultivate a level of skepticism about data, and develop skill in visualizing and interpreting data. They will solve even more problems if the organization supports these efforts through disciplined metadata management and data quality management.