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Lessons from Social Anthropology

Explore the journey of digitizing data at HMRC, facing challenges, and uncovering solutions. Learn from real experiences in managing digital artifacts, identity, and communication. Discover practical lessons for successful data management.

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Lessons from Social Anthropology

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  1. Lessons from Social Anthropology Tacey Laurie, HMRC

  2. March 2016: HMRC Digital Centre Aims: • Identify and document digital data • Enable analyst access to digital data • Influence outputs to enable easier analysis …sounds simple enough

  3. 1 year, 4 months later: • Identify and document digital data • Data identifiable but documentation for statisticians starting from scratch. • Website teams’ drive for continuous improvement means data changes over time.

  4. and also… • Enable analyst access to digital data • Data hard to understand. • Data dictionaries created are out of date as soon as I write them. • Influence outputs to enable easier analysis • Products too diverse to allow consistent output format.

  5. Questions:- • Why is there no product specification to hand? • Why does the data keep changing? • Why is this data so hard to understand? • Why aren’t products built by consulting analysts first?  Write data dictionaries (lots of them) faster(as fast as the products are built).

  6. Conclusion:- Even the best data dictionary in the world can’t replace a real conversation.

  7. Artifacts

  8. Artifacts • Digital: • Product • Service • Platform

  9. Artifacts • Digital: • Product • Service • Platform • Statisticians: • Publications • PQs/FOIs • Policy analysis

  10. Identity

  11. Identity • Digital: • Product • Software • Agency

  12. Identity • Digital: • Product • Software • Agency • Statisticians: • Team • Department • Profession

  13. Communication

  14. Communication • Digital: • Scrum • Slack • Tickets

  15. Communication • Digital: • Scrum • Slack • Tickets • Statisticians: • Email • Project mgmt docs • Meetings

  16. So what?

  17. Artifacts • Digital: • Product • Service • Platform • Statisticians: • Publications • PQs/FOIs • Policy analysis • product-focussed • pragmatic • output-oriented

  18. Artifacts • Digital: • Product • Service • Platform • Statisticians: • Publications • PQs/FOIs • Policy analysis • product-focussed • pragmatic • output-oriented • analysis of existing data

  19. Identity • Digital: • Product • Software • Agency • Statisticians: • Team • Department • Profession • individualistic, flat structure • uni, self study • pragmatic

  20. Identity • Digital: • Product • Software • Agency • Statisticians: • Team • Department • Profession • individualistic, flat structure • uni, self study • pragmatic • corporate, hierarchical • uni, CPD • badging, promotion

  21. Communication • Digital: • Scrum • Slack • Tickets • Statisticians: • Email • Project mgmt doc • Meetings • output-oriented • pragmatic

  22. Communication • Digital: • Scrum • Slack • Tickets • Statisticians: • Email • Project mgmt docs • Meetings • output-oriented • pragmatic • confirmation • validation

  23. Digital: Statisticians:

  24. Digital: Statisticians:

  25. Digital: Statisticians:

  26. What can we learn from this?

  27. What can we learn from this? • Work with what you have.

  28. What can we learn from this? • Work with what you have. • Use meetings for work. • Time spent chatting is not time wasted.

  29. What can we learn from this? • Work with what you have. • Use meetings for work. • Time spent chatting is not time wasted. • Be responsible for your career.

  30. Questions

  31. Links: Who Moved My Cheese, Spencer Johnson (1998), Ebury Publishing Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon (2012), Workman Publishing Coursera Open Learn

  32. Contact details: Tacey Laurie KAI Data Science and Technology, HMRC tel: 03000 543 852 email: tacey.laurie@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

  33. Photos from Royal Ontario Museum: • Slides 2, 3: Earthenware, 7th century BC Cypriot horse figure • Slides 4, 5: Oil on canvas, James Earl (American, 1761 – 1796) • Slides 6, 7: Thamudic script, Basalt, c. 100 AD Saudi Arabia • Slides 10-13: Tea canister, lead glazed earthenware, c. 1765-1770, Staffordshire; HaëlWerkstättenfürKünstlerischeKeramik, 1930 – 1932, Marwitz, Germany • Slide 15: Earthenware, 1st-2nd century AD, excavated at Nippur (Iraq)

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