QUOTABLE
“Why should analytics professionals care about project management? After all, we are trained problem-solvers and when we “do stuff,” good things happen, right? On the contrary, projects are the primary vehicles through which we deliver value, and consistently delivering value with analytics requires effective project management.”
Recent News
Gartner: Four forces driving a data-centric future for marketers
The convergence of marketing technology (Martech) and advertising technology (Adtech), event-triggered and real-time marketing techniques, personalization and the use of contextual clues are the four key forces that point to a data-centric future for marketers, according to a recent report from Gartner. Read more →
INFORMS launches aCAP certification for early career analytics professionals
As businesses, industries and other organizations exponentially increase their use of analytics to improve their operations and performance, they face additional challenges of identifying, recruiting and retaining the very best analytics talent. Since its inception in 2013, the Certified Analytics Professional (CAP®) program has enabled hundreds of organizations across 20 different countries (including 20 percent of the Fortune 100) to meet those challenges through its rigorous process of certifying top experienced analytics professionals. Now, the CAP program is helping organizations expand that ability to top early career professionals with the launch of its new Associate Certified Analytics Professional (aCAP) program. Read more →
Business execs lack confidence in insights from data and analytics
Most business leaders today believe in the value of using data and analytics (D&A) throughout their organizations, but say they lack confidence in their ability to measure the effectiveness and impact of D&A, and mistrust the analytics used to help drive decision-making, according to a new survey from KPMG International. Read more →
MORS to hold Emerging Techniques Special Meeting
The inaugural Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Emerging Techniques Special Meeting (METSM) will be held Dec. 6-7 at the Hilton Mark Center in Alexandria, Va. The meeting will feature high-quality technical presentations from leading experts from both inside and outside the MORS family and provide an opportunity for consumers of analysis and non-traditional providers of analysis to meet and share their needs and capabilities. Read more →
Carefully chosen words in a fundraising appeal boosts donations
A forthcoming study in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science, based on the psychology of sympathy, shows that small changes in the wording of a fundraising letter can increase donations by more than 300 percent. Read more →
Analytics Society of INFORMS
Analytics Section announces new officers
Stefan Karisch (photo) of Boeing was elected president of the Analytics Society of INFORMS, and he formally took the gavel from outgoing President Jim Williams of FICO at the Society's business meeting in Nashville, Tenn., on Nov. 14. Read more →
INFORMS Initiatives
INFORMS unveils new logo
During the recent 2016 INFORMS Annual Meeting, Vice President of Marketing and Outreach Laura Albert McLay unveiled an exciting change for the organization – a new logo that will officially begin to be used with the launch of the new INFORMS website in the spring of 2017. Read more →
INFORMS Prize submissions due Dec. 1
The deadline to apply for 2017 INFORMS Prize is Dec. 1, 2016. The INFORMS Prize is awarded for effective integration of advanced analytics and operations research/management sciences (OR/MS) in an organization. Read more →
2017 INFORMS analytics conference accepting submissions
The deadline for submitting proposal presentations for the 2017 INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics & Operations Research is Jan. 15, 2017. The conference will be held April 2-4 in Las Vegas. Read more →
Williams, Burciaga to lead 2017 Analytics Certification Board
Jim Williams, CAP, of FICO and Aaron Burciaga, CAP, of Accenture Digital have been elected chair and vice chair, respectively, of the 2017 Analytics Certification Board (ACB). The ACB, whose members are elected by INFORMS and CAP® designees, meets on a quarterly basis to provide oversight and guidance to the Certified Analytics Professional (CAP) and the Associate Certified Analytics Professional (aCAP) programs. Read more →
Progress report: ‘Guide to the Analytics Body of Knowledge’
The “Guide to the Analytics Body of Knowledge” (ABOK) is nearing a first draft. Along with a study guide for those seeking Certified Analytics Professional (CAP®) status, ABOK can also be used by instructors to help with curriculum development, by HR managers to determine what the employees need to know, by regulators to understand the state of analytics practice, by employers to provide a career path for employees and by new-comers to analytics to understand more about the field Read more →
Recent Features
Putin vs. Western analysts
Russia has a plan to take over Central and Eastern Europe, only this time by buying it rather than overrunning it. Russia’s recent move to a more assertive foreign policy has more and more analysts trying to guess its intentions and how the Western world can respond. Russia’s military push into Georgia, the advance of rebels presumably backed by Russia in the Crimea, Russia’s possible involvement in the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails and generally bolder statements in foreign policy indicate that there are reasons for concern. But there is broad disagreement about what Russia’s objectives and plans really are. Read more →
Making analytics work through practical project management
On one end of the spectrum, labeled “Do Stuff,” organizations focus on action taking, a laissez-faire approach to project management, with little documentation and loosely defined deliverables, timelines and budgets. On the other end, labeled “Buttoned Up,” organizations take a disciplined approach to planning, monitoring and executing projects, with documentation and carefully defined deliverables, schedules and budgets. This approach is common among consulting groups by necessity, since clients insist on having answers to the 3 key questions of project management: what is to be delivered, when and at what cost? Read more →
Crowdsourcing – Using the crowd: curated vs. unknown
You’ve heard from colleagues, from industry news, maybe even from personal experience of the success of crowdsourcing. With nearly half the world’s population online, it makes sense to tap into this tremendous resource to collect large quantities of data by breaking the collection down into micro-tasks that the enormous crowd of Internet users will complete for you at pennies per task. But you’ve probably also heard of cases of crowdsourcing gone wrong, cases like the British government agency that put the task of naming its new research vessel out to the crowd and ended up with Boaty McBoatface. Read more →
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