A Balanced Scorecard, Business Intelligence & Six Sigma Blog by Laura Gibbons a.k.a Sassy Data Chic

TDWI Executive Summit World Conference San Diego, 2008 - It's On...

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:02:10 GMT

Video: TDWI World Conference 2008 - Sunday, August 18, 2008 Pre-Conference HighlightsTonight, formally starts the Executive Summit portion of the Data Warehouse Institute (TDWI) World Conference 2008, in sunny San Diego...(See @lauragibbons on Twitter for hotel pics).

Check back often for clips and interviews with the masters of business intelligence, including (hopefully) Bill Baker and Wayne Eckerson (formerly Microsoft and TDWI, respectively). I am speaking on Tuesday on Six Sigma / Process Intelligence, the marriage of BI and Process Excellence and Six Sigma.

Video: TDWI World Conference in San Diego, August 18, 2008 - Sunday Pre-Conference

Talking about Monsters of Legend: Cryptozoology

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 23:53:10 GMT

I find it funny how we 'the collective human being" tends to believe what we are taught without questioning how factual or relevant a given learning is - For example, Pluto is no longer a planet as those born in the 70's and 80's were taught. And for decades prior, people believed our solar system consisted of 7 interplanetary objects called planets orbiting around a circumspect, gravity-free system of preconceived time, dwarf stars and theory, bound no more by the laws of astronomy, than is gravitational force an immutable space. Likewise, the black swan was considered myth until one made its way from Australia once a long-time ago, because the very existence was merely one belief, while baked in 1st -person factual experience. Did anyone go back and say "jeez, I was an id*ot for disbelieving you Joe Australian, seer of the black swan"? I highly doubt it. So, here is an account of legend gone extinct gone awry.

Quote

Monsters of Legend: Cryptozoology

Many animals once thought extinct or legendary have been eventually discovered to be real.

Guerilla Marketing Meet Business Intelligence; The Result? Social BI Networks or BI 2.0

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:45:45 GMT

Casual users who become adopters compound the “viral” tipping point of the “usage effect”. When a system eases the user’s experience, rather than the reverse that never leads nowhere good <insert the person who best fits ‘I deleted it from the registry with a shrug’ who inadvertently deletes their O/S here>, why not try to these stages to gain a better understanding of your BI efficacy from your users.

I dubbed this measurement technique 3XEI (in order) : educate, illustrate, elaborate, integrate, extrapolate, iterate. The follow down process is as defined as follows:

Seek first to understand, then to be understood; EDUCATE yourself on the pain points from the eyes of the customer (“Voice of the Customer”),
ILLUSTRATE to prior adopters, detractors and neutralities the benefits of BI by mapping out or illustrating a visualization map of their current process circling all pain points in the process.
In order your dependence on IT to support business-driven application acquisitions, you should continue to interview candidates, walk the process and mine as much as you can in order to ELABORATE on the process map until you’ve captured all process metrics.
INTEGRATE your approach to educating, illustrating and elaborating on your BI program, you will gain end-to-end insights previously obscured by not factoring in the multi co-linearity of inputs on each other as well as the intended output.
EXTRAPOLATE to pain points and use information to drive decisions or changes to the process at large.
ITERATE on the illustrated processes as extrapolation exercise dictates or requires in order to remain vital and relevant to the organization.

These phases have no definitive start/stop points. They are as mutable as the changing technology landscape in corporations today. They are tightly embedded within for the life of the process at the broad organizational level. Very few companies understand the power of mapping all efforts to the core business process supported, nor can they visualize the power of the optimized, end-to-end process on driving the bottom line. Those that do, reap the rewards; and those that don’t, well, they need not be mentioned.

FW: Check out this cool social networking site...

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:14:01 GMT

Check out this cool social networking site...

Business Informed Decisions or Uninformed Intelligence in a 2.0 Wannabe World

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 17:34:43 GMT

Fact: Only 19 percent of companies say their employees have all the data they need to make better, more informed decisions. ¹

Legacy "executive information systems", and in some cases, failed TQM, CRM and IVR - any business-dubbed acronym assigned to a once disruptive yet sexy piece of technology used to support some business process. And with each time said, the 'apparently innocuous acronym', became what corporate decision support & IT leaders would hate the most; the ever-present reminder that they, too, like you or I, believed the promised triple digit ROIs and NPVs and IRRs and TCOs; and we all know how we feel about the typical IVR experience.

And for all of the marketing hype and business-related jargon, none much materialized in the way of extreme financial rewards. In fact, the pains that were felt were invisible to the average eye. They came in the form of the levels of support (i.e. manpower) that was required to 'support' users and systems; but hey, they don't call it disruptive for nothing.

But I digress…

Let's just say the expectations set were far greater than the actualized returns.

Driven to succeed and with common understanding of importance of sharing information across silos and processes, and free from the burden of role ambiguity, employees can truly uncover ALL of the intersection points affecting a given process, product and plan. And with further analysis, one could establish the root causes and relative impact to the ultimate measure of success for most companies: profitability.

And with boundary-less organizations, come a well-oiled operations machine, free from the clutter and waste that infiltrates overly complex and bureaucratic organizations. The same ones that have meetings to plan meetingsàI know you know the ones …

What comes when one begins to think outside of the proverbial box, and think about things from the customer's vantage point, is a powerful sense of organizational self awareness, ultimately, bubbling up a call to action to your workforce, resulting in focus and drive...but that's where I stop…it is stalled by middle management, filled with less than promising mid-managers who know little about mentoring and growing their staff, far too consumed with feelings of being threatened by xxx up-and-comer staffie…

Using this 'voice of the customer' along a supply-chain is a powerful technique for designing and developing effective process and project metrics. In many ways, effective measurement determines the success of the projects -- A world where BI and project / processes have merged to evolve a new technique called Process/Project Intelligence, where the combined use of project management methodologies (including ISO9001, Agile (Scrum) or Design for Six Sigma) and business intelligence are merged into a true picture of the health of the organization across all verticals and horizontals, where all root causes are explored, eliminated and prioritized. While BI has undoubtedly evolved into a powerful set of technologies suitable for different types of users and information analysis needs over the early 'EIM' days, it is far from the 'single source of truth' that so many vendors spin into their sales pitch because most systems negate to weave the in element of the business managed processes that geminate out of every department within every organization at some level.

Honestly examining one's process by actual current state and stop blending the truth through their rose-colored, kaleidoscopic-view of operations, can one move into the thrilling world offered by those at the top of the Process & Project Intelligence pyramid. A place driven by the truth of data, where unified and systematic approaches to understanding one's business are commonplace rather than exception; where process optimization is key to project prioritization rather than secondary; where development initiatives are driven by the 'voice of the customer', rather than the voice of the developer.

Project Measurement and Selection Fostered by Business Intelligence

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:36:43 GMT

Fact: Only 19 percent of companies say their employees have all the data they need to make better, more informed decisions.¹

Legacy “executive information systems”, and in some cases, failed TQM, CRM and IVR - any business-dubbed acronym assigned to a once disruptive yet sexy piece of technology used to support some business process. And with each time said, the ‘apparently innocuous acronym’, became what corporate decision support & IT leaders would hate the most; the ever-present reminder that they, too, like you or I, believed the promised triple digit ROIs and NPVs and IRRs and TCOs; and we all know how we feel about the typical IVR experience.

And for all of the marketing hype and business-related jargon, none much materialized in the way of extreme financial rewards. In fact, the pains that were felt were invisible to the average eye. They came in the form of the levels of support (i.e. manpower) that was required to ‘support’ users and systems; but hey, they don’t call it disruptive for nothing.

But I digress…

Let’s just say the expectations set were far greater than the actualized returns.

What comes when one begins to think outside of the proverbial box, and think about things from the customer’s vantage point, is a powerful sense of organizational self awareness, ultimately, bubbling up a call to action to your workforce, resulting in focus and drive...but that’s where I stop…it is stalled by middle management, filled with less than promising mid-managers who know little about mentoring and growing their staff, far too consumed with feelings of being threatened by xxx up-and-comer staffie…

Using this ‘voice of the customer’ along a supply-chain is a powerful technique for designing and developing effective process and project metrics. In many ways, effective measurement determines the success of the projects -- A world where BI and project / processes have merged to evolve a new technique called Process/Project Intelligence, where the combined use of project management methodologies (including ISO9001, Agile (Scrum) or Design for Six Sigma) and business intelligence are merged into a true picture of the health of the organization across all verticals and horizontals, where all root causes are explored, eliminated and prioritized. While BI has undoubtedly evolved into a powerful set of technologies suitable for different types of users and information analysis needs over the early ‘EIM’ days, it is far from the ‘single source of truth’ that so many vendors spin into their sales pitch because most systems negate to weave the in element of the business managed processes that geminate out of every department within every organization at some level.

Honestly examining one’s process by actual current state and stop blending the truth through their rose-colored, kaleidoscopic-view of operations, can one move into the thrilling world offered by those at the top of the Process & Project Intelligence pyramid. A place driven by the truth of data, where unified and systematic approaches to understanding one’s business are commonplace rather than exception; where process optimization is key to project prioritization rather than secondary; where development initiatives are driven by the ‘voice of the customer’, rather than the voice of the developer.

1. HP and Business Objects study. 2007.

Scorecard Architecture – Cascaded Model

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:02:19 GMT

"In God We Trust….All Others, Bring Data," w. Edwards Deming

Example PreformancePoint M & A (ProClarity) Charts

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:00:52 GMT

For me to track...

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:47:08 GMT

Clicky 2.0 Web Analytics - Please Ignore - For tracking only

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:33:35 GMT

Stat Counter

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:24:11 GMT

BPM and BI – a marriage of perfection in a society of divorced transaction and analytical systems, where process is so far removed from BI that one cannot see the line of sight to another

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:44:09 GMT

It’s interesting to think about the world through the eyes of the leader who wakes up one day finding he or she finally “gets it” – They have seen through the fog of confusion when learning data warehousing concepts. Even worse, take a theoretical concept like Business Intelligence or Business Process Management, and try to explain that to them, and you will be given the blankest of stares. Taking this to the next level, how does one explain this to others when they are asked the inevitable, party ice breaker, “ what do you do for a living? ”

Take this image. I wanted to illustrate my point which is, in essence, illustrating the subject of my blog post. This dual meaning approach is the lens through which all life is viewed against the landscape of corporate nuances and entendres.

BUT, I digress….And now we’re back to the example...look at the levels, and two columnar labels, and tell me –> do you see the point(s) of integration?

Well 1st, the descriptions: this flow-down chart represents a logical grouping of customers into segments called ‘Value Tiers’ with a conditional statement limiting the ‘set’ to just the leaf level element = “Gold”. This flow-down ends with a further subset of customers found within the Gold Tier / Segment called ‘Members’,’Joiners’, and/or ‘Leavers’.

Why would this subset stratification be important…? Once you know who your platinum and/or gold customers are, do you believe you are ‘golden’, i.e. ‘have arrived’ aka can complete the analysis?

Forgive the pun; the answer is unequivocally NO…By following the tree of logic downstream, the analysis grows exponentially in its ability to uncover information of growing importance and relative value to the business.

This example represents a method known as a ‘customer segmentation’ or ‘customer value scoring’ model – Often, it is no more than applying a dimensional model architecture to the levels in the graphic. Other times, you can use more statistical analysis’ like partial least squares to score your customer base into set buckets as determined by your modeler. By understanding your most valuable customers, and subsequently, the least valuable (aka - most costly customers), you, dear reader, can arm yourself with extremely power intelligence to shape your loyalty program.

Now do you see how the segmentation model is a representation of both business process management driven off of cunning business intelligence? This example typically isn’t what is materialized for most people’s ‘example reference library, the place where we all go to when brainstorming in our minds, the metaphorical well we draw from when a client asks us for a best practice solution based on our vast knowledge of the thought space.

Now, take me for example…a thought leader in both BPM and BI, who has a tendency for breaking off from the pack in terms of thought leadership, in order to drive the industry to the next level. Disruptive at times, and often too conceptual for an organically visual society, I represent an enigmatic persona, compounded by my sheer excitement for all things ‘BI’. For me, it is one thing to think about BI and BPM as independent thoughts; it is an all together another universe of thought leadership to weave them seamlessly together into a marriage of process and data driven decision making, where the proof is in the returned, not perceived benefits.

If you are one of those ROI jockey’s who would rather see a triple digit ROI % than see realistic figures , who is wooed by the most dramatic or compelling ‘stories’, then you will appreciate the rewards that the marriage of BI and BPM will afford to you in not just theory…but also in practice. Segmentation, when stratified along the correct lines, with the correct balance of stick vs. carrot, a company can reap massive rewards in terms of loyalty which drives retention and repeat purchase likelihood which drives the financial bottom line.

yields =

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PerformancePoint Planning Server Configuration Notes for MCTS 70-556 Certification Exam

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:59:09 GMT

Topics: Models and Dimensions - Day 1

(see powerpoint reference below for notes from day 1)

Everything in your Right Hand Tool Bar is Your Friend - Create a Model is where you start!

Dimensions - Day 1

Once you have your model, you have a cube within Analysis Services to analyze. Then you can slice your dimensions to get you the particular leaf level of information you need:

These correspond to your Excel PPS add-in report creation wizard options:

Rules - Day 2

Where the magic is for getting those pesky financial ratios calculated correctly (outside of the cube) is in the Business Rules section, found by clicking on a model name and clicking on the 3rd tab (see image below).

PerformancePoint Planning Server (PPS Planning) uses PEL expression syntax as the PPS native query language -- On the up side, PEL can be converted to both Native SQL and Native MDX, which is a nice feature!

3 Types of Rules

1) ASSIGNMENT RULES - can copy and paste debug code that is output by PPS PEL into SQL Server Analysis Services' (SSAS) 2005 Management Studio client tool or SSAS 2000 MDX Sample App client tool for assignment rules ONLY

Example assignment type business rule - real-world PEL expression:
--comment: all rules are nested within scope (); scope statements that are set explicitly or variably within the embedded 'THIS' statement below.

SCOPE(

[Scenario].[All Members].[Forecast],
[Time].[YQM].[July FY2008]:[Time].[YQM].[December FY2008],
[Account].[BizCorpAccount].[20010], -- external sales
[BusinessProcess].[Standard].[input],
[Entity].[BizCorpEntity].[All].leafmembers,
[TimeDataView].[All Members].[PERIODIC],
--[Currency].[All Members].[USD],
[Currency].[All Members].[Total All Currencies].LeafMembers,
[InterCompany].[All Members].[None],
[Geography].[BizCorpGeo].[ALL].leafmembers,
--[Geography].[BizCorpGeo].[NAM],
[Products].[BizCorpProducts].[All].LeafMembers,
[Version].[All Members].[Current]) ;

THIS = ([Account].[BizCorpAccount].[35300] * [Account].[BizCorpAccount].[35200]);
END SCOPE;

Here is the native MDX code for the above assignment rule to help bridge the gap between PEL and what you might be more used to when writing against multi-dimensional sources (assuming those interested in this section on MDX are OLAP developers and architects):

WITH CELL CALCULATION queryCalc

FOR

'([Measures].[Value],

[Account].[BizCorpAccount].[Level 11].&[5001],

[Scenario].[All Members].[Scenario].&[9],

    {[Time].[YQM].[Month].&[200807] : [Time].[YQM].[Month].&[200812]},

    [BusinessProcess].[Standard].[Level 06].&[8],

    Descendants([Entity].[BizCorpEntity].[(All)].&[0], 1073741823, LEAVES),

    [TimeDataView].[All Members].[TimeDataView].&[1],

    Descendants([Currency].[All Members].[(All)].&[0], 1073741823, LEAVES),

    Descendants([Geography].[BizCorpGeo].[(All)].&[0], 1073741823, LEAVES),

    [InterCompany].[All Members].[InterCompany].&[-1],

    Descendants([Products].[BizCorpProducts].[(All)].&[0], 1073741823, LEAVES),

    [Version].[All Members].[Version].&[1])'

    AS

    (([Account].[BizCorpAccount].[Level 03].&[5090],[Measures].[Value]) * ([Account].[BizCorpAccount].[Level 03].&[5089],[Measures].[Value]))

    SELECT NON EMPTY

    ([Measures].[Value],

    [Account].[BizCorpAccount].[Level 11].&[5001],

    NonEmpty(({[Scenario].[All Members].[Scenario].&[9]},

    {{[Time].[YQM].[Month].&[200807] : [Time].[YQM].[Month].&[200812]}},

    {[BusinessProcess].[Standard].[Level 06].&[8]},

    {Descendants([Entity].[BizCorpEntity].[(All)].&[0], 1073741823, LEAVES)},

    {[TimeDataView].[All Members].[TimeDataView].&[1]},

    {Descendants([Currency].[All Members].[(All)].&[0], 1073741823, LEAVES)},

    {Descendants([Geography].[BizCorpGeo].[(All)].&[0], 1073741823, LEAVES)},

{[InterCompany].[All Members].[InterCompany].&[-1]},

    {Descendants([Products].[BizCorpProducts].[(All)].&[0], 1073741823, LEAVES)},

    {[Version].[All Members].[Version].&[1]})))

    properties [Scenario].[All Members].Key ,

    [Time].[YQM].Key ,

    [Account].[BizCorpAccount].Key ,

    [BusinessProcess].[Standard].Key ,

    [Entity].[BizCorpEntity].Key ,

    [TimeDataView].[All Members].Key ,

    [Currency].[All Members].Key ,

    [Geography].[BizCorpGeo].Key ,

[InterCompany].[All Members].Key ,

[Products].[BizCorpProducts].Key ,

[Version].[All Members].Key

ON COLUMNS

FROM [Forecast]

2) Definition RULES - same as assignment except calculated at run time and is not stored within the cube.

Sample expression for a definition rule for calculating variance to budget:

scope (

[TimeDataView].[All Members].[PERIODIC],
[BusinessProcess].[Standard].[INPUT],
[Account].[BizCorpAccount].[20320].leafmembers,
[Scenario].[All Members].[VarBudget_pct]) ;

This=(([Scenario].[All Members].[Budget]-[Scenario].[All Members].[Actuals])
/
[Scenario].[All Members].[Budget]
);
end scope;

3) INTERCOMPANY RECONCILE RULE - when one department is the receivable and the other is a payable - this rule balances your balance sheets

Report Properties - Day 3

Properties within Reports:

Under options:
- Capture changes before workflow action(writes to SQL before workflow action - false by default, and best practice due to amount of data sent).
Capture design time formulas - allows for writable cells in Excel reports - default is true
Inherit design time formulas - on the excel side - true by default - can slow things down…Put formula at the All members so that the leafs inherit the formulas
Options - should use NO spread for most instances

Security within PPS - Day 3

Windows AD or LDAP only

If you have write access but NOT read, you have nothing - READ MUST BE IN THERE

Users can be assigned to many roles

If READ ONLY, at the ALL MEMBERS

IF WRITE, at the leaf level

Use same service account as SSIS (or other ETL tools) instead of PPS service accounts - ensure your login not associated as an owner;

Should be the same account as the SSIS package "Data import" service account - it will pass through the credential details of the account; not the same account as the ADMIN account or anything requiring ADMIN rites on SSAS…

Cycles, Jobs and Assignments (work flow) all found under Process Management Link

Cycles

A cycle is a time period is for 1 scenario (Actual, Budget, Forecast) and 1 time range

Check Define a recurrence for forecast if it happens every year

Dates start and end are for non recurrence entered next screen - first and last days to input in the forecast before close out
- For recurring, select App Calendar, the period of recurrence (Month is typical)
- For each repetition of the forecast, enter the time here for when assignments can be made and forecast can be edited. This is th e 'open' books period.

Summary slide for assigning cycles

Remember: Forecast cycles - outside container of time for all activities

Only 1 Cycle is 1 scenario x 1 model x 1 range of time

Workflow / Assignments: see powerpoint files (please email me if you want these)

Assigned to user in Excel - submit and submit draft actually hit db; otherwise, local saved only

Once submitted, it is closed!

Status of submission:

Pending status first - waiting in queue to be picked up by PPS service
Wait Process - services picked it up Partial / Submitted - Data is in the Fact tables

Associations

Between models, you can associate dimensions - especially important between forecast and corporate models when different time scenarios are used, or different accounts from the general ledger are part of the cube requirements, something harder than usual for an OLAP developer to get right. (the 1st test pass at least)

Appendix

Please email me for the actual files from the list of options below...lauragibbons@scorecardstreet.com.

Remember...

2 keys with your dimensions - 1) to check-in your model before you proceed to any of the offered 'Available Actions' and 2) you deploy and redeploy model after changes are made to the structure where you want to refresh your cube (fact) data;
2 keys with your business rules -- when making changes or adding new assignments &/or associations, PPS Planning requires you 1) refresh and reprocess model data and 2) redploy rules

Balanced Scorecards and Six Sigma / Business Process Unite: How Marriage of Strategy, Process and Metrics Can Differentitate Your Company During Times of Financial Crisis or Cutbacks...Here's how:

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:46:10 GMT

Balanced Scorecards (BSC) with drill-thru, linked dashboards are a perfect companion to a Six Sigma or business process focused organization, helping to facilitate the project selection process -- most deployment leaders assign projects according to those with the highest benefits (ROI); extrapolated further, this stack ranked approach could be further stratified by critical to success measures, linked to the corporate strategy...

What do I mean...

Take an objective like 'Increase Growth in our International markets' -- you assign a metric of Growth % to the objective which becomes your KPI. You assign a weight of importance to that KPI of a 5 (1 - 5 scale), meaning the most important performance indicators to the business. Underneath, you affinitize 5 metrics that roll under 'Growth %' KPI, which become your related PIs, or performance indicators. An example would be Sales Growth by Region (whether you have domestic and international regional attribute slices).

You determine 2 projects to help you with this one PI that will contribute 80% to the overall Growth KPI.

(Gotta love the pareto rule: 80% of all impact is caused by only 20% of the variables).

What should you display on your scorecard vs. linked dashboard(s)?

The KPI should end up on the executive view of the BSC to keep it at the 60000 ft view; if one wants to peel back the onion, they will inquire further by naturally clicking on something as this is a natural analytical thought process when looking at data on a computer screen.

Next, you should associate the What Are you Doing About it - Otherwise, it isnt truly balanaced nor will it be useful to others in the org, like a PMO department. This is where the Six Sigma overlap is again evident-

Projects should be divided into 3 categories:

i. ‘Quick wins’ (less than 3 months from concept to results; solution is not known upfront)
ii. ‘Just Do It ‘(less than 6 months from concept to post implementation/results tracking; solution is already known at onset)
iii. Lean Kaizen events / Workout projects (3-6 months in project duration; non-political; where the end is achievable & only light statistics are necessary to deliver quick but meaningful hits; often suited for more nimble organizations though efficient, process focused large companies can also benefit from this concept.

Stratify this further into 5 views , one of which is a concept I like to call ‘voice of inner perspective’ –

By recognizing upfront that it is no easy process, and definitely easier said than done, you should be able to set expectations for yourself and others...And, to change the paradigm one person at a time, readers, please understand..., THIS WILL NOT BE EASY -- You need passionate people and passion yourself to weather the hard times, neigh-sayors and roadblocks.

I, too, thought.."yeah, and pigs will fly when top leadership lets any scorecard drive strategic planning..." But then, I saw it work in a most uncertain of times; in a most unrealistic of deployments: bottom's up, grass roots & employee driven. Proof was in the pudding, and once we got traction and JUST DID IT, rather than JUST TALKING ABOUT IT, leadership got excited and bought into the program. Then, we went to the TOP (CEO), gained support, and got the mandate and funding we wanted in the beginning.

Workplace Metaphors - Back by Popular Demand

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:58:00 GMT

Now that I no longer work for my old boss, who took this post personally, I am adding it back by popular demand.

Workplace Metaphors and more...

(originally posted on blogger http://flowergirldujour.blogspot.com/ in 2006)

I have been collecting a list of metaphors and cliches
often used in the work place to mean something to the
person saying it, in an almost self-righteous way.
For example, I once heard my boss say "Rome wasn't built
in a day...And You Can Boil the Ocean at the Same Time...While
I know you know How to Eat an Elephant - One Bite At a Time...
you might lack the Line of Site and JUMP INTO THE WEEDS
where your Grass Roots spirit takes over your 60,000 foot view, but remember there is the pink elephant (yes, pink) in the room, so never underestimate the power of persona when driving down the superhighway of life..."
How many workplace metaphors were used in the last paragraph?
(BTW, that was rhetorical).
The interestingly ironic thing is that these statements, while vague
and often spoken in an effort to "spin" the situation into a positive
light, they are nothing more than "smoke and mirror" statements (what I affectionately
like to call SAM).
If you hear a colleague saying one of these phrases, you might be
wondering what you should do?
Here are a few suggestions...
A) Hold your hand up in a gun position (thumb up//pointer finger out) and shoot an air gun while winking your eye.
B) Respond back with your own string of workplace metaphors: "There are no silver bullets", "let's parachute down to
street level", etc.
C) Hit your staples 'Easy Button' to eject said person through the roof
All in all, it is a fast and easy way to tell who you want to
associate with -- Go for those who speak with passion and integrity;
not spin doctors, for you might just wind up with your sweet spot (meaning:
where you find the best in breed for your business at the lowest opportunity
cost) mixed with some secret sauce (meaning: the key success measure) resulting in what my
friends tease me for doing all of the time: mixing my metaphors!

Data Model Standard Abbreviations

Sun, 25 May 2008 16:24:29 GMT

Click on a Letter to link there: C D F H P T

WORDS USED IN LOGICAL AND PHYSICAL MODELS

¥ - Mandatory Abbreviation

WORD		LOGICAL		PHYSICAL

Academic		academic	¥	acad
Access		access		access
Account		account	¥	acct
Acronym		acronym	¥	acr
Account title line		account title line	¥	accttl
Actual		actual	¥	act
Address		address	¥	addr
Administrative		administrative	¥	admin
Advisor		advisor	¥	advr
Amount	¥	amt	¥	amt
Agreement		agreement	¥	agree
Appointment	¥	appt	¥	appt
Area		area		area
Award		award	¥	awd
Balance		balance	¥	bal
Base		base		base
Basis		basis		basis
Budget		budget	¥	bdgt
Beginning		beginning	¥	beg
Billet		billet		billet
Birth		birth		birth

C (top of page)

WORD	LOGICAL		PHYSICAL

Campus	campus	¥	camp
Category	category	¥	cat
Code	code	¥	cd
Chair	chair		chair
CHRIS	chris	¥	chris
Citizenship	citizenship	¥	citz
Close	close		close
Class (academic class)	class	¥	cls
Commitment	commitment	¥	cmit
Committee	committee	¥	comm
Completed	completed	¥	compl
Continuing	continuing	¥	contg
Conversion	conversion	¥	conv
Cost	cost		cost
Coterm	coterm		coterm
Council	council		council
Cross	cross		cross
Course	course	¥	crse
Current	current	¥	cur

D (top of page)

WORD		LOGICAL		PHYSICAL

description	¥	desc	¥	desc
Degree		degree	¥	deg
Department	¥	dept	¥	dept
Direct (vs. Indirect)		direct	¥	dir
Distribution		distribution	¥	distrib
Division		division	¥	div
Dollar		dollar		dollar
Date		date	¥	dt
Dual		dual		dual
Effective		effective	¥	eff
Emeritus		emeritus		emeritus
End		end	¥	end
Ended		ended	¥	end
Ending		ending	¥	end
Enrolled		enrolled	¥	enr
Enrollment		enrollment	¥	enr
Earned		earned	¥	ern
Ethnic		ethnic		ethnic
Expense, Expenditure	¥	exp	¥	exp
Extension		extension	¥	ext

F (top of page)

WORD		LOGICAL		PHYSICAL

Faculty		faculty	¥	fac
Federal		federal	¥	fed
Female		female	¥	fem
Field		field		field
First		first		first
Fiscal		fiscal	¥	fisc
Foregone		foregone		foregone
Foreign		foreign		foreign
Fiscal to Date		fiscal to date	¥	ftd
Full Time Equivalent		full time equivalent	¥	fte
Full		full		full
Function		function	¥	func
Fund		fund	¥	fund
Funds		funds	¥	fund
Funding		funding	¥	fund
Fund Title 2		fund title 2	¥	fund2
Fund Title 3		fund title 3	¥	fund3
Fund Title 4		fund title 4	¥	fund4
Fund Title 5		fund title 5	¥	fund5
General		general	¥	gen
Gender		gender		gender
General Ledger	¥	general ledger	¥	gl
Graduate	¥	grad	¥	grad
Grading		grading		grading
Grand		grand		grand
Group		group	¥	grp

H (top of page)

WORD		LOGICAL		PHYSICAL

Hire		hire		hire
Hierarchy		hierarchy	¥	hrchy
Indirect Cost		indirect cost	¥	idc
Identifier	¥	id	¥	id
Indicator	¥	ind	¥	ind
Institute		institute	¥	inst
Instructor		instructor	¥	instr
Instruction		instruction	¥	instn
Intended		intended	¥	intd
Investigator		investigator	¥	invstr
Image		image	¥	img
Job Classification Code	¥	jcc	¥	jcc
Leave		leave		leave
Level		level		level
Location		location	¥	loc
Major		major		major
Male		male		male
Month		month	¥	mon
Modified Total Direct Cost	¥	mtdc	¥	mtdc
Name		name	¥	nm
NIH (National Institute of Health)	¥	nih	¥	nih
No		no		no
Non		non		non
NSI (Network for Student Information)	¥	nsi	¥	nsi
Null		null		null
Number		number	¥	num
Operating Budget		operating budget	¥	ob
Off		off		off
Open		open		open
Organization	¥	org	¥	org
Original		original		orig
Other Sponsored Accounts	¥	osa	¥	osa
Other		other	¥	oth

P (top of page)

WORD		LOGICAL		PHYSICAL

Parent		parent	¥	par
Percent		percent	¥	pct
Person		person		person
Personal		personal		person
Program		program	¥	pgm
Principle Investigator	¥	pi	¥	PI
Plan		plan		plan
Prime		prime		prime
Project		project	¥	prj
Proposal		proposal	¥	prop
Proposed		proposed	¥	prop
Project to Date		project to date	¥	ptd
Quarter	¥	qtr	¥	qtr
Quarter Year	¥	qyy	¥	qyy
Quantity		quantity	¥	qty
Rank		rank		rank
Rate		rate	¥	rt
Registered, Registration	¥	reg	¥	reg
Rejected		rejected	¥	rej
Residence		residence	¥	res
Residency		residency	¥	res
Restrict		restrict		restrict
Return		return		return
Subject Area		subject area	¥	sa
Salary		salary	¥	sal
School		school		school
SUFIN	¥	sufin	¥	sfn
Share		share		share
Short		short		short
Sound		sound	¥	snd
Social Security Number	¥	ssn	¥	ssn
Special		special	¥	spc
Sponsored Project or Office	¥	spo	¥	spo
Sponsor		sponsor	¥	spon
Source		source	¥	src
Start		start		start
Status		status	¥	stat
Stipend		stipend	¥	stip
Stop		stop		stop
Student		student	¥	stu
Stanford University	¥	su	¥	su
Subschool		subschool		subschool

T (top of page)

WORD		LOGICAL		PHYSICAL

Tenure		tenure		tenure
Term		term		term
Time		time	¥	tm
Title		title	¥	ttl
Total		total	¥	tot
Transaction	¥	tran	¥	tran
Transfer		transfer	¥	xfer
Tuition		tuition	¥	tuit
Text		text	¥	txt
Type		type	¥	typ
Undergraduate	¥	ug	¥	ug
Unit		unit		unit
University	¥	univ	¥	univ
Waiver		waiver	¥	waiv
Withdrawn		withdrawn	¥	wdn
Word		word		word
Transfer		transfer	¥	xfer