Tapping Into the Strategic Power of Data

We all now live in a data-driven world. And the federal government may be the single largest generator – and user – of data in the world. According to Digital.gov, “Every day, thousands of federal workers collect, create, analyze, and distribute massive amounts of data from weather forecasts to economic indicators to health statistics. Federal government data is a major driver of the American economy as businesses use the data to make decisions or blend the government data into products and services sold to consumers.”

At the same time, data is one of the most untapped strategic assets that federal agencies own; too much time is spent collecting and cleaning it and not enough time on extracting its insights. Capturing these insights requires working across organizational data silos and systems, often with a shortage of data analytics skills within the federal workforce. Meanwhile, innovation leaders face a different set of challenges when scaling artificial intelligence, especially where AI is augmenting human decision making. Without a comprehensive data strategy, the legal and ethical challenges limit the potential of this emerging technology.

Learning Objectives:

• Review data sources and current uses in your agency
• Evaluate the timeliness and cleanliness of data being generated
• Identify potential data sources in other agencies that your agency would find useful
• Define metrics to measure the value of data analytics for your agency’s mission