# Working with Data

Do you remember how i said that there are two types of Data.
Economic and Technical Data.
Both are used to control a Company.
But the Term Controlling especially in the Corporate speak is used to talk about finances.
But it's not the only why to use it so let's find a common basis.

There are two fields where the term controlling is mainly used.
The Technical and The Economical.
gabler.de

I herd the CEO of Futurice once talk about how “Data Driven Companies democratize the decision-making process”
Unfortunately I could not find that quote again so take it with a huge grain of salt.

I would challenge that idea, I think that a Data driven company from an Economic perspective is essentially a way to get rid of human labour in accounting and controlling.

Further Reading for DDDM

But it is note hat this is only possible to a certain degree.
You have to have the domain knowledge of the Data to make a assumtion.

The Process of using Data for an Economical use case is a open loop function.

1. Trigger
2. Process / Analysis
3. Result

It starts with a trigger, it in itself is the Information to start a pre-defined process.
The Process takes Information and transfers it to a system.
These System takes this “new” Information and produces the Output.
This Output in itself is also again Information.

graph LR
A(Assumption)-->B[Process Data]-->C[Decisicon]

This is where the term “Garbage In → Garbage Out” comes from.
If the human made assumption is flawed, the decision couldn't be good either.

You will have heart the Phrase Data is the new oil if you follow that idea then analytics is Gasoline or Plastic.

I like that Analogy because it implies that there are also sideeffects to DDDM.
With oil where we now have a environmental crisis.
DDDM has that to as you may have notices in Media where Hate and Fear is spread faster...

The main task Data is used for in technical sens, is for Automation.

Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines.

Automation is a term for technology applications where human input is minimized. This includes business process automation (BPA), IT automation, personal applications such as home automation and more.

Again, the Data is ultimately used to reduce the amount of human labour.

Close Loop is feedback driven.
It means that you specify a desired State and the system Automatically adjusts anything, so the state comes back to the desired State.

The difference to the Open Loop system, the closed loop system has a predefined Desired State and senses its actual state constantly.

graph LR  
    A(Input)
        A --> B[Controller]
        B --> C(Process)
        C --> D[Feedback sensor]
        D --> B
        C --> E 
    E[Output]

If the Input is weird, so will be the output with the difference that the system will try to make it happen as hard as it can.
Still Garbage in -> Garbage Out apply here too.
With a Correction factor.

For both systems the cost of implementation is significant.
So we need a formulae to know when it is wise to implement it.

ROI = Return on Investment.

1. Make a Ballpark estimation.

There is a Good article from Frevvo on how to ballpark estimate a ROI for a Project.
Basically you make a estimate on how much time, money… you save over the time of one year and get a value back for how long it takes until you save hard money.

2. Make a VSM Analysis.

VSM stands for Value Stream Management.
The Term was coined by Toyota in the 1960's.