Synopsis: A guide for managers to plan for incorporation of Big Data and Analytics in their company.
Difficulty: Not really applicable.
After reading through “Big Data”, I had to go back and read it again. Not because it was confusing or poorly laid out, but because I had a hard time understanding how author Bill Schmarzo managed to pack so much into a paperback that is no wider than my index finger. Seriously, there is more in these 200 pages than I have seen in books twice the size.
To illustrate what I mean, consider that Schmarzo includes ALL of the following:
• Multiple case studies on the business impact of using Big Data
• A Data Analytics Lifecycle
• Responsibilities of a Data Scientist
• Common “traps” in human decision making
• A Big Data Strategy template, with examples of what it would look like for Starbucks and the San Francisco Giants baseball team
• The Big Data Business Model Maturity Index (which I assume is his own creation)
• A Big Data envisioning worksheet (which is mainly about what your business drivers are)
• A solution engineering process
• And finally, one of the best explanations of MapReduce I’ve ever read in half a page (are you kidding me??)The target audience for this book is clearly senior management types who want to know what Big Data can do for their organization and how to include it in their decision making process. For those people Schmarzo has hit a clear home run.