The Big Data Playbook for Government

All across government, agencies are looking for ways to become more efficient and effective — and many are choosing to leverage big data to make better and more informed decisions. But the challenge for agencies is getting started. What does big data mean for their agency? How can big data change the business of government?

In our latest GovLoop Playbook, we provide you with the framework to bring big data to your agency. We’ll break down big data into manageable components, and let you understand how to make big data a reality at your agency. Our playbook will serve as your roadmap for big data innovation, and provide step-by-step instructions to deploy big data strategies in your agency. Below we share the Playbook outline:

Section 1. How to Think About Big Data at Your Agency

Learning objective: In this section, we help you think about what big data means at your agency. We’ll work through strategies to know what problems to tackle with your big data initiative, and how to navigate through common obstacles.

Section 2. Building Your Big Data All-Star Team

Learning objective: In our second section, we walk through who makes up your “big data team.” We’ll help you understand if you need to the skills needed at your agencies to run big data programs. You may not be able to hire, but you can certainly assess your workforce and understand skills gaps at your agency, and how to fix them. We’ll help you get this process started.

Section 3: What IT is Powering Your Big Data Initiative

Learning objective: Here we will provide an overview of the big data technology landscape, and help our readers understand what IT you need, and don’t need to meet your objectives.

Section 4: Preparing for the Big Data Journey

Learning objective: In our final section, we want to give you some tactical tools and worksheets to use at your agency. Our worksheets are your chance to put the lessons learned in the guide into practice. This section will provide you with the following worksheets:

• Worksheet #1: Creating Your Big Data Statement of Purpose
• Worksheet #2: Overcoming Common Big Data Challenges
• Worksheet #3: Building Your Big Data Team and Workforce Planner
• Worksheet #4: Your Big Data Infrastructure Checklist
• Worksheet #5: Building Your 60-Day Action Plan

We hope you find this a valuable resource, and serves as your first step to capitalizing on the power of data at your agency.