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University Information Technology (UIT)

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DM&A Current Events

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David R. Howell

New Data Warehouse Architect – David R. Howell

Data Management & Analytics (formerly Business Intelligence) in UIT’s University Support Services is pleased to announce that David R. Howell has been hired as a Data Warehouse Architect. Howell reports to Director Brian Harris and works specifically with the VPR office, and in turn the ORIS Office.

Howell previously served as the IT Manager for the Office of Global Engagement here at the University of Utah. In that role he managed and supported IT systems, administered databases, developed custom applications, and created the Global U Inventory, an online searchable database of all global activities at the university.

In his new role, he will be responsible for development of data movement, maintenance of the metadata layer and designing of ETL jobs and data models, as well as daily maintenance of technical and business requirements for the entire Data Management life cycle. He will also lead data warehouse and/or business intelligence initiatives, coordinate data integrity and migration activities, and resolve technical issues.

Howell holds Bachelor of Political Science from the U and a Master of Information Systems from DePaul University.

 

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Data Governance

Mission Statement: Utilize data management standards, data models, collaboration, and transparency to help departments expand their data usage and analysis.

Definition: Data Governance is comprised of the policies and processes that determine how an institution organizes the architecture, accessibility, storage, and usability of its data, while ensuring that the data is trustworthy and secure.

Data Management: The University uses Collibra to perform many of its data mapping and accessibility functions. Collibra contains glossaries of business & technical terms, data catalogs, technical linage diagrams, and workflows to aid in the processing, approval, and storage of data.

Data Science

Mission Statement: Accelerate the speed, scale, quality, and impact of data science using well-managed, centralized, and governed data.

Definition: To achieve its goals, Data Science will create an enterprise analysis environment, implement enterprise best practices, and enable continuous improvement through clarity, transparency, reproducibility, and collaboration.

Tools: The Data Science team primarily works with the 'R' programming language. The team uses the development environment in RStudio Workbench to write analysis code, and RStudio Connect to move advanced visualizations and functions into Tableau and produce on-demand custom reporting.

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Data Engineering

Mission Statement: Make data accessible and easy to understand through centralized storage and integrations.

Definition: The Data Engineering team works with areas across campus to move data to a central repository so that it can be accessed, combined with a variety of sources, and with a clarified business purpose and steward.

Engineering Projects: The engineers in DM&A maintain the data in the Student Data Warehouse (SDW), Financial Data Warehouse, and a multitude of Operational Data Stores (ODS) for areas across campus. They are the facilators of data movement across campus and can help individuals connect cross-departmental data.  

Data Visualization Tools

Tableau: A data visualization software that connects to a wide variety of data sources and allows for rapid insight by transforming data into appealing, interactive visualizations called dashboards. Users create dashboards by using available BI data or their own existing data, and then share them by uploading to the Tableau Server. Tableau is best suited to visualize aggregated data through graphs & charts.

Web Intelligence (Webi): The part of the SAP BusinessObjects product suite that is used for analytical reporting to meet an organization's business requirements. Webi is a Business Intelligence reporting tool for business users to analyze data in a data warehouse, helping organizations with decision-making. Webi is best suited for reports containing tables and lists.

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Recent DM&A Projects

Basic Needs Collective:

Adding the resource list the Basic Needs Collective (BNC) uses to refer students to places they can get help.  This enables the BNC to better curate their list and provide students with exactly the resources they need.

Student Affairs Cataloging:

Entering Student Affairs KPIs and initiatives to help them better understand their goals and how to track them.  Also entering associated lines of business and technical assets to aid in this endeavor. 

Course Sequencing:

Working with Enrollment Management to understand and utilize Degree Auditing Report (DARs) data to help find better ways for students to choose courses within their academic career.

FIL Dashboards:

Currently working on creating tableau dashboards that can show summary reports of FIL (Financial Information Library) queries.

 

Last Updated: 1/20/23