The Agile Planner

A quick glance at Google Trends data confirms that Big Data--at least as a marketing phrase--is at its peak. Over the past year the phrase has skyrocketed in popularity, most likely thanks to searchers both curious about what Big Data means, and how they should approach data management when information has more volume, variety and velocity than ever before.

The short answer is ‘yes’.

At last week's Budgeting and Forecasting presentation in Dallas, I took some time to get personal. I reflected on my life as a financial modeler at planetrx.com. I presented two stories illustrating broken financial modeling processes and poor communication that may have contributed to the company’s ultimate demise. Many of the Dallas attendees related to my failures. I am sharing these stories hoping that you, the reader, might learn something so that you do not repeat my mistakes.