Data for Business Performance: The Goal-Question-Metric (GQM) Model to Transform Business Data into an Enterprise Asset

Today, digitization is dramatically changing the business landscape, and many progressive organizations have started to treat data as a valuable business asset. While many enterprises are investing in improved data management, only a few have leveraged data to truly impact business performance. To address this problem, Data for Business Performance provides readers with practical guidance and proven techniques to derive value from data in today's business environment. Specifically, this book:

1. is holistic, as it looks at deriving value for all three key purposes of data: decision making, compliance, and customer service.
2. is for practitioners, with practical guidance and proven techniques supported by real world examples.
3. is relevant for the current business and IT landscape.
4. is novel, with the adoption of the Goal-Question-Metric (GQM) framework as the core mechanism to monetize data in the organization, based on business goals, key questions, and key performance indicators (KPIs).
5. is technology-agnostic, as concepts are used for unlocking the value of data without any reference to proprietary technologies.

This book is absolutely timely and relevant in today's data-driven world. Most of the books on data available in the market today focus on data quality, governance, and analytics. This book from Dr. Prashanth Southekal is brilliant as it puts the business stakeholder at the center by addressing the key value propositions of the business user. This book is holistic and I strongly believe it will help to bridge the gaps we have today.
Mario Faria Managing Vice President, Gartner, US

Packed with insights and leveraging a process oriented approach, this book covers a unique combination of the science, the art and the strategy of unlocking the potential of data for enterprises in a real-life context. The author has managed to provide a clear action plan for creating data analytics and its management a key function in a modern enterprise.
Ashish Sonal (Vir Chakra)
CEO, Orkash, India

This book is one of the most practical sources for how companies can greatly improve their bottom line by improved data management and becoming a data-centric company. It combines leading data management theory with step-by-step implementation and real-life examples, and is a must-read for those wanting to derive more value from their corporate data.
Lance Calleberg
Application Architect, Husky Energy, Canada

Prashanth has given a very practical guide to implement data culture in an organization. The book Data for Business Performance talks about building the organization of the future and the role of data. Prashanth rightly believes and demonstrates that data is not an asset of the IT team and is an organization-wide asset. He proposes the need for the chief data officer (CDO) as a role that should anchor data and report to the CEO, and manage the stakeholders' data needs.
Harshajith Umapathy
Senior Vice President, Hansa Cequity, India

Dr. Southekal provides valuable insights on data and information management in mostly short and clearly written sections. Anyone interested in the data-driven company should read this book and learn about the hurdles on the road to be data-driven, and his valuable suggestions on how to overcome them. His wisdom may prevent some of the failures that helped him learn.
Erik van der Voorden
Domain Architect, Independent Consultant, Netherlands

Prashanth H. Southekal brings over 20 years of digital technologies experience from companies such as SAP, Accenture, Deloitte, P&G, and General Electric. He has delivered numerous cross-functional projects across various industry sectors and helped business enterprises monetize their data. He has presented scholarly works in high quality publications and conferences, as well as published numerous books and articles on data and information management. Outside work, he enjoys juggling and music. Prashanth lives in Calgary, Canada.