How can you integrate data from multiple sources to create a unified view of your domain?

With objective to optimize the resources available identifying data sources can start from referencing relevant architecture, process maps, and documentation. This gives us a first high level overview of system interactions and business data needs for particular departments.

Data integration and domain knowledge are crucial for business analysts seeking to combine and analyze data from diverse sources for decision-making. To succeed, follow these steps: identify data sources and understand their characteristics, define a data model with consideration for standards, choose the right integration method, implement the solution while adhering to best practices, validate results, and finally, analyze and communicate insights effectively. This process ensures data accuracy and completeness, enabling informed decision-making and clear communication of results. Data integration is indispensable for managing the complexity and volume of data in today's business landscape.

Set your objectives to identify sources you needed 1st. Data set will come from various platforms, how you determine the final report/dashboard/product would changes the aspect of how we going to collectively combine all the data gathered API recommended to be able to fully adopt all information required

If we get data from multiple sources, we might want to check different things like where are they coming from and where do they flow to. Understanding the end to end flow gives a better visualization of the data and what requirements does it solve. We can use a tool like Dataverse for storing them and PowerBI for visualizing them.

To create a unified view of your domain from multiple data sources, follow these steps: Identify and extract data from various sources, transform it into a common format, store it centrally, establish relationships, ensure data quality, and address security and compliance requirements. Document the data thoroughly, provide user-friendly access, and maintain the system. Continuously monitor, train users, gather feedback, and make improvements to optimise the data integration process. This approach ensures that you can harness the full potential of your data for informed decision-making and insights.

In a retail company optimising its supply chain, data sources include internal databases with sales and inventory data, supplier records for lead times and pricing, social media for customer sentiment, weather data, and economic indicators. Integrating data from these sources creates a comprehensive view for better inventory management and data-driven decisions.

While there will be multiple school of thoughts, I am a firm believer that we must have our "Why" defined before we get into anything related to data. BI or Data world is so huge that its easy to get drowned or lost. You must define your Objective. Why you are picking up integration of data from different sources is a key; some of the key considerations can be: > Are you looking to create a single view (or customer) view of the data. > Are there some known problems you are looking to solve ? > Are you in exploratory mode ? and Many more. All in all, its key to "Understand the purpose of data integration. What insights or goals are you trying to achieve? This will guide your integration strategy."

Identifying data sources for integration is vital. Start with an inventory of all data repositories, considering data ownership, quality, schema, and metadata. Assess data volume, update frequency, and security. Check for APIs or connectors. Engage business stakeholders for input and future scalability. Maintain detailed documentation for effective integration.

Strategy to for each data source will differ depending on the data type. Especially for semi structured data. Identifying data sources appropriately is vital indeed.

Creating a data model involves defining the structure and relationships between data entities in a way that aligns with your domain and analysis objectives. For example, in the healthcare industry, a data model may include entities like patients, diagnoses, treatments, and medical records, with attributes specifying patient demographics, medical codes, and treatment outcomes. It's essential to adhere to industry standards and data integrity rules during this process.

A data model is a structured representation of data and its relationships within a system or database. It defines how data is organized, stored, accessed, and manipulated. It typically consists of entities (objects), attributes (properties of entities), and the relationships between these entities. Data models serve as a blueprint for designing databases and help ensure data accuracy, consistency, and efficiency in data management systems. Common types of data models include relational models, hierarchical models, and object-oriented models, each suited to specific data management needs.

Now the other side of the coin is, do you really want to define your data model before hand ? Are you creating a target based data model or source based ? By all means when you start a BI project in current world of vast data and verities, a trick question is would you want to invest time and efforts in *trying to understand the data* or just jump into a no data model approach and come back to the model only if its needed .. well is this an option .. why not ?

To implement this process effectively, organizations often use data integration tools, ETL platforms, data warehouses, and master data management solutions. It's also important to have a clear strategy and governance in place to ensure that data integration is aligned with the organization's objectives and that data remains accurate and secure.

To define the data model, we have to understand the organizational structure. For example, there can be an Enterprise wide Datawarehouse which is used for Online Analytical Processing(OLAP) and a separate RDBMS, which is used for Online Transactional Processing(OLTP). Some organizations also have smaller data marts supporting each departments to supply data into a bigger Datawarehouse.

Modeling data is a creative art. Ensure your model is consistent with the storytelling 'vibes', thereby making it easy to engage the target audience with ethical data.

Consider: Do you need to integrate the data at all? Most people automatically assume this will involve transforming data to create new dashboards or datasources. Now is a great time to see if the business requirements can support simple "eyeball integration". The smartest integration tool you have is your brain. Your eyes can look at information from several data sources at once if arranged logically on your display. You likely already have the tools to view existing data. Rather than embark upon an IT driven integration project, consider a user driven visual integration project using your existing dashboarding & visualisation tools. This approach is simpler, adaptable, easy to evolve and involves very little change for your users.

Selecting the right data integration method is crucial. For instance, in the retail sector, ETL (extract, transform, load) processes might be employed to gather data from various sources like point-of-sale systems, online transactions, and customer reviews. These data are then transformed and loaded into a centralised data warehouse. The choice of method should align with your specific data integration needs and consider factors like data volume, frequency, and complexity.

Selecting the right data integration method is crucial. Consider ETL for batch processing, ELT for data lakes, real-time integration for up-to-the-minute data, API integration for modern systems, federated integration for minimal data movement, data replication for real-time access, data pipelines for automation, and manual entry for smaller volumes. Evaluate your data sources, transformation needs, and governance to make an informed choice. Often, a mix of methods may be necessary to meet diverse integration requirements.

Make sure that the data integration method you use eliminates redundant data processing and data transfers. In turn, this will result in a more streamlined data integration life cycle - from initial configuration to decommissioning

In my experience, getting clarity on the different types of data integration methods, their benefits, and shortfalls is helpful. Among the data integration methods are batch, real-time, streaming, federated, point-to-point, hybrid, API, ETL, and ELT. Based on your business objectives, technical infrastructure, data volume, velocity, variety, and veracity, choose the right integration method.

To implement your data integration solution effectively: 1. Plan comprehensively, defining objectives, timelines, and resources. 2. Extract data efficiently from source systems using your chosen method. 3. Transform data, cleaning and enriching it as needed. 4. Load transformed data into the target system while monitoring for issues. 5. Rigorously test the solution, including unit, integration, and user acceptance tests. 6. Implement monitoring, error handling, and documentation practices. 7. Ensure data security, compliance, and scalability throughout the process. 8. Deploy the solution and conduct final testing. 9. Train users and maintain updated documentation. 10. Establish ongoing maintenance, support, and optimization procedures.

Implementing your data integration solution involves putting your chosen method and data model into action. In the healthcare sector, for instance, data integration could entail using specialised software and tools to consolidate patient records from various hospital departments, ensuring seamless access to critical medical information. This process should adhere to industry-specific regulations like HIPAA to maintain data security and privacy.

In implementing data integration solutions, continuously improve data quality and regulatory compliance and use cost-effective systems that support easier integration.

Integration testing is a very critical component of program implementations.. It's important to not only look at this phase as transmission of data, but look at the business significance of data.. For example anything that hits the financial systems needs complete testing Vs other system applications

Validating and testing your data integration results are essential to ensure the accuracy and completeness of your unified data view. In the financial sector, for instance, validating the integration of customer data from various sources would involve cross-referencing records, checking for consistency in transaction history, and verifying that all relevant data, like account balances and personal details, are correctly integrated. This rigorous testing helps prevent errors in financial reporting and customer interactions, enhancing trust and regulatory compliance.

It's always good to have a second or third pair of eyes to help validate and test data integration results. Not to be overlooked, business teams often have rich context for the data they use regularly. They may be able to do a quick check of the data integration results and tell you if anything looks "off."

Validating and testing data integration results is essential for accuracy and reliability. Key steps include data validation (completeness, accuracy, consistency, integrity), functional testing (transformations, error handling), integration testing (end-to-end flow), performance testing (processing times, scalability), user acceptance testing (stakeholder validation), regression testing (no new issues), security/compliance testing, documentation/logging (record-keeping), user training, and feedback-driven iteration. These steps guarantee data quality, adherence to requirements, and informed decision-making.

Merging data without thorough checks is asking for trouble. Always validate integrated data against its original sources. Don't assume; always test.

Cleansing and transformation should also happen at some stage during the transmit process. Especially when integrating systems from two separate process areas. An SAP application may have field that are not captured in Salesforce CRM when integrating some level of transformation in the data is expected.

When performing complex data transformation logic, phase the transformations and validate at each step. This helps identify local issues and offers quick solutions.

Analysing and communicating data integration insights is crucial for deriving value from your unified data view. In the retail sector, for instance, after integrating sales data from various channels, analysis might reveal that online sales have significantly increased during a specific period. This insight can inform marketing strategies, inventory management, and customer engagement efforts. Communicating this finding to the management team using data visualisation tools and a clear narrative empowers data-driven decision-making and can drive business growth.

Address data insights communication challenges by breaking down analysis into smaller, more focused business solutions, collaborating with domain experts to validate interpretations, utilizing nontechnical and technical reports, aligning with organization policies and privacy regulations, prioritizing insights for impactful changes, maintaining transparency, providing evidence-based recommendations, and continuously monitoring and updating insights.

Integrating data from a bunch of different places isn’t just a technical puzzle, it's about mixing the nuts and bolts of data with understanding the real human stories behind it. Imagine blending all that customer shopping data with their social media bits — it’s not simply spotting buying habits, but peeling back the layers to understand why they buy and being totally straight-up about how we use their info. It's kind of like crafting a smoothie that’s got the techy data part but also the human and ethical sides. So, we’re not just dealing with data, we're intertwining it with the human element and keeping it all above board, making our insights not just smart, but also really tuned in and transparent.

In my approach, I would look at this topic from non-technical lens first. This helps with engaging business leaders effectively. Mapping the dimensions to which data sources should come together to draw a bigger picture is more related to business needs than technical aspects. I have taken over numbers of integration projects which failed due to the lack of business understandings. So, to successfully lead the integration journey, I do usually start with a simple assessment (check free tools in my website) to identify common sources for any inefficiencies in data and digital ecosystem. The assessment helps me to better understand the position of technical or business knowledge needed to lead the integration.

Oh data! data!! data!!! how cleverly thou has intertwined your characteristics into our being and all that surrounds us. To deny you your place is to deny our existence and improvement. Yet, you require to be sought out strategically and pampered before you reveal your treasures. Oh, data! data!! data!!! Let's always have a joyous adventure in delving into what makes you the exalted data!

I think what differentiates one brand from another is how they are integrating customer sentiments with the brand value to provide a better customer experience. Market Basket Analysis alone will not be the sole driver of your sales. Active involvement of customers are needed to make the brand grow. Harley Davidson uses this technique wherein dynamic participation of end users are needed in designing some high-end motorcycles. In this way, customers feel they are not just some buyer but a part of a bigger inclusive community who can take decisions.