Bruce has over 20 years of IT experience focused on data / application architecture, and IT management, mostly relating to Data Warehousing. His work spans the industries of healthcare, finance, travel, transportation, retailing, and other areas working formally as an IT architect, manager/director, and consultant.
Bruce has successfully engaged business leadership in understanding the value of enterprise data management and establishing the backing and funding to build enterprise data architecture programs for large companies. He has taught classes to business and IT resources ranging from data modeling and ETL architecture to specific BI/ETL tools and subjects like “getting business value from BI tools”. He enjoys speaking at conferences and seminars on data delivery and data architectures.
Bruce D. Johnson is the Managing director of Data Architecture, Strategy, and Governance for Recombinant Data (a healthcare solutions provider) and can be reached at bjohnson@recomdata.com
I am fascinated by the wide variety of database solutions in place across all industries that are referred to as data warehouses. It seems that any time data is placed in a database, whether…
Whenever you are embarking on a lengthy adventure to a location you haven’t been, it always starts with some high level planning. When planning my vacations, once I have an idea of where I…
Across healthcare, the demand and pressures for access to data are now overwhelming organizations. In many organizations, the only access to structured data for performing analysis was being conducted by the resources in Finance.…
A pilot/prototype project is the most effective way to gain support, endorsement, and funding for data warehouse/analytic efforts. It provides an opportunity to demonstrate success, value, and proficiency. Yet, the success of a pilot…
Analytics solutions require many different efforts, tools, and components in order to be successful. Good data capture and validation, sound integration practices, and an appropriate front end user tool that is set up and…
With the number of unsuccessful data warehouse projects in the last several years reaching significant numbers, more and more organizations are becoming frustrated with a return on value of analytics solutions. Recently there has…
Like many analytics solutions, dashboards and scorecards are thought of in many varying ways from organization to organization or individual to individual. Just the terms alone often have varying definitions. One interesting way for…
A Subject Area Model (SAM) is a key component of a successfully developed data warehousing or data architecture program. Oftentimes, when a subject area model is created, they are frequently leveraged for only the…
Databases are the root of the success for the applications that they support. Creating an effective database for any need requires understanding the business needs you are trying to fulfill, the data that is…
The ability of your infrastructure to grow with the needs and usage of your solution is what defines it as being scalable. Most architects are comfortable with how to appropriately select and implement hardware…
Data warehouses, marts and all analytical solutions are often thought of as technical structures that are defined, built, and managed by the IT department. By now I think we all know that the solutions…
Last month I introduced one part of analytics governance – the high level concept of providing business warehouse oversight to the content stored in a data warehouse, mart, or other analytical database. Key areas…
One commonly overlooked challenge to developing any data warehouse is actually getting access to the source systems and data that you plan on integrating into a data warehouse environment. Whether it is just getting…
Are you looking at purchasing or selecting a data warehouse related toolset – BI, ETL, Data Profiling, etc…? Organizations often burn lots of time and energy trying to figure out what tools, software, and…
Acquiring funding for analytic efforts is a significant challenge that most organizations face at one time or another, often year after year. Companies of all sizes, projects small and large, all have to be…
Most healthcare providers are active building, installing, or enhancing data capture systems. Many are focused on developing, implementing, or revising an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) that can be a composite repository of much of…
Small, focused analytical efforts can be of great benefit to an organization. They are often used to serve a specific need, such as build a pilot solution to prove value for a larger future…
Throughout the years, I have seen as many different ways of building IT and business organizations to support data warehousing efforts as I have seen data warehousing architectures. Inasmuch as the establishment of an…
In my last article, I began a 3-part series designed to outline criteria for staffing a data warehouse program within a corporation. Part I focused on breaking down the various roles, thoughts on how…
Last month we went through part II of a three part series designed to outline criteria for staffing a data warehouse program within a corporation. Part I focused on breaking down the various roles…
Leaders in many corporations have struggled with effectively leveraging analytics to improve their business and bottom line. Often times in those same organizations the concepts of data warehousing and analytics get a bad rap.…
One significant cause of failure in analytical solution projects is allowing enough time for adequate user adoption of a solution. Too often, solutions are viewed only as technical projects and the project is recognized…
Whether you are beginning to develop your analytics program, or re-architecting an existing one, long term success depends on having a right-sized, sound approach, and a realistic plan. More and more today, in our…
Many managers, developers, architects, and data modelers I have met have questions around the challenges and benefits of working with an abstract data model and database schema. The presence and exposure to abstract models…
It seems like there are endless levels of planning and challenges that are encountered in data warehousing/business intelligence efforts. One specific challenge that has caused many a project to fall into an “analysis paralysis”…
Building an analytical solution can be an arduous task. There are many factors that are required in order to deliver a successful solution. It takes good planning, a solid architecture and design, good setup…
The best place to start is at the beginning. Are you undertaking an effort to build a solution that involves reporting, analysis, mining, or running rules against your enterprise data? Before designing a data…
In working with many large corporations across a variety of industries, it is clear that we all face the reality of rearchitecting data warehouses being common place, whether we want to admit it or…
Most requests for using a data delivery tool (BI is now becoming too broad a term to use clearly anymore) to showcase data and deliver it to appropriate users are simplistic in nature. Still…
I have had the opportunity to work in data management for large corporations most of my career. I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about all of the different aspects of business and how businesses can…