IBM Center for The Business of Government

The late Steve Jobs famously answered some of the emails sent to him from strangers.  Other celebrities, both in and out of government, have entered the world of digital communications, setting up email accounts, and starting social media feeds, only to become overwhelmed by them.

Dr. Thomas Davenport, in a recent Harvard Business Review article, says “Some of us now perceive another shift, fundamental and far-reaching enough that we can fairly call it Analytics 3.0.”  What does this mean for leaders of large organizations?

The Three Phases of Analytics.  Davenport writes that the field of "analytics" has evolved over the past 60 years in three phases:

A provision of the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 kicks in this year.  It requires OMB to “determine whether the agency programs or activities meet performance goals and objectives outlined in the agency performance plans.”  If not, then OMB has to prepare a report to the Congress on unmet goals.

This report, written by Kevin Desouza, Arizona State University, provides a clear and useful introduction to the concept of big data, which is receiving increasing attention as a term but also lacks a commonly understood definition. In describing big data, Prof.