Vision for Analytics in the DND/CAF
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Vision
To elaborate on what was outlined in the DND/CAF Data Strategy, and to more clearly set ambitions of the DND/CAF in that space, an analytics-specific vision statement is provided below:
To provide Defence Team members with near real-time trusted data-driven decision support, anywhere in the world
That vision is deliberately ambitious and implies many practical characteristics for Defence Team members. They include:
- Consumers will have secure access to a set of baseline analytics tools by default, and will be able to access analytics products through multiple channels, from anywhere in the world, 24/7/365, including from classified networks, where appropriate;
- Data presented in analytics products will be updated in near real-time, where necessary;
- Analytics products will be created using integrated data sets of structured and unstructured data from a wide variety of sources, including partner data and open data; and
- A range of tools fit for different types of analytics, from commercial business intelligence tools to open-source data science tools, will be available to enablers across the enterprise.
Guiding Principles
The following guiding principles will help DND/CAF to make decisions about investments in analytics and the future development of analytics products. The principles complement those of the DND/CAF Data Strategy.Footnote 1 The guiding principles of the DND/CAF Data Strategy are: data are a shared asset; data are accessible; data are secure; data are trusted; and, data are managed ethically.
- Purposeful:Analytics products are developed to satisfy a specific business question or operational outcome, providing the right information in the right format, and tools are fit-for-purpose. Focusing on outcomes drives how analytics products are designed, modeled and delivered to the consumers, and ensures analytics products deliver maximum value.
- User-friendly: Analytics products and tools are intuitive to use, readily accessible, searchable, and easily understood. Analytics tools, data science tools, and the analytics products created using them (e.g. dashboards, maps, predictive models), must be easily accessible and usable from anywhere (including from theatres of operations where applicable) and at any time. Analytics products may be incorporated into existing systems, views or operations. Senior decision makers should be able to consume key products in just a few clicks. The amount of “friction” to access analytics (e.g. account creation process, onboarding mechanism, password protection) should be minimized to the extent possible.
- Governed: Analytics products are developed using defined validation and approval processes. Product certification/validation will ensure that products have the necessary quality and integrity. Additionally, clear authorities, accountabilities and responsibilities are needed to ensure that analytics efforts are accurate, aligned to business needs, and worthwhile. Governance also ensures that analytics processes and products are ethical (e.g. through the use of Government of Canada’s Algorithmic Impact Assessment), and secure.
- Trusted: Analytics products and the processes used to create and maintain them are documented so users understand data sources, visualizations, transformations, and limitations. By being transparent about the methods used to create analytics products, and having versioned source code available for examination, the results can be reproduced and independently verified, and consumers will have greater trust in the insights provided by those analytics products.
- Consistent: Analytics products are aligned to the requirements set out by functional authorities for their subject areas. Analytics products that address the same issue or area (e.g. finance, HR) should be in the same format, present the same metrics, and be accessible from the same system of records. By doing so, comparisons over time and between organizations can be more easily accomplished.
Stakeholders
Although there is a wide range of analytics stakeholders in the DND/CAF, they can be broadly categorized as:
- Consumers: Stakeholders who consume analytics products as part of their decision-making. They can be any Defence Team member, at any level, both military and civilian.
- Enablers: Stakeholders who develop or support the development and implementation of analytics products. They can be any Defence Team member at any level, and either military or civilian; they may also be contractors with specialized skills.
It should be noted that any individual may be a consumer or enabler at different points in time.
Analytics Capabilities
The following analytics capabilities will be available:
- Self-serve capabilities: Access to data queries and data exploration within lines of business, descriptive analytics (i.e. BI tools and products), and some diagnostic analytics;
- Specialized capabilities: Specialist-provided data integration from different sources/lines of business, advanced diagnostic analytics, predictive analytics, prescriptive analytics, and artificial intelligence;
- Governance and coordination capabilities: Specialist-provided governance processes, standards and best practices; and
- User support capabilities: Enabling support including business intake, data enablement, user permissions, acceleration support, training, as well as maintenance and IT operations.
Infrastructure and Tools
A proper infrastructure is required to build and consume analytics products, including the required analytics tools (BI tools, advanced analytics tools, and data science tools), computing power, and platforms / environments (staging environments, data hubs, data warehouses and data lakes).
Dependencies
While out-of-scope for this document, the successful adoption of analytics is also dependent on having the appropriate data management foundations in place, as well as having the data to analyze. These include
- Data management foundation: Strong data management processes throughout the data lifecycle are important to the success of analytics, specifically data governance, data quality, data security, data architecture, and document and content management; and
- Data sources: Having a wide variety of data sources and data types (e.g. structured and unstructured) available increases the value generated from analytics. Application data, internet of things (IOT) and sensor data, partner data, open data, and standalone data should all be available for use in analytics.
Roles and Responsibilities
The successful delivery of the Analytics vision requires the commitment and resources of stakeholders across the Defence enterprise, as described in the following table:
| ADM (DIA) | ADM (IM) | All L1s |
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Footnotes
- Footnote 1
The guiding principles of the DND/CAF Data Strategy are: data are a shared asset; data are accessible; data are secure; data are trusted; and, data are managed ethically.
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