Data Literacy for All: The gateway to project success

It’s hard not to open a website, listen to a podcast, or even read a newspaper without someone saying that artificial intelligence (AI) will change the world in ways we can’t imagine. We need to be ready for it, embrace it or even fear it, which isn’t easy when it’s unimaginable.

One of my first jobs was to run training courses for executives learning to use the internet. We’d teach them to connect a dial-up modem, decipher web addresses, download browsers and differentiate between gopher, the World Wide Web and Usenet.

One of the trainers had worked at the Pentagon, among the first offices in the world to have a fax machine. The only other fax machine was in the office next door, so the two offices spent the first few months sending each other messages. When the novelty wore thin, they moved onto feeding it parts of the carpet to see what would happen. Eventually, they returned to their work, embracing the new and revolutionary technology. The internet, she said, is no different; to embrace it, you need to find a way in.

APM is leading the way in promoting data literacy, which offers the power to organise, access, use, understand and communicate data to facilitate effective decisions and deliver project success. This drive - Data Literacy for All - promotes the adoption of five critical skills in APM’s Data Literacy Skills Framework. These are:

Managing project information

Data is often messy and disorganised, while not a barrier to effective data literacy, we can improve accuracy and accessibility to use data effectively.

Foundations of data

Understanding the language of data helps assess its strengths and weaknesses and the insights you can draw from it.

Interpreting and influencing with data

Data is only as valuable as the way you use it; interpreting it correctly and using it to engage with decision makers and stakeholders is crucial to data-led success.

Data visualisation and storytelling

Data visualisation is about transforming your data into forms that are easy to understand and help to tell engaging stories.

Decision-making with data

Using data as a companion to make decisions; understanding what it’s telling you, what it’s not and where it might be wrong, misleading or incomplete.

At the heart of all AI is data and an ability to process it. Analytical tools and artificial intelligence are helping project professionals use more data to help them gain deeper insights about their projects. It’s used in all aspects of project delivery; communication, planning, risk, even predicting outputs and outcomes. It’s finding clarity in complexity and bringing dynamism to decision making.

Whether you’re a project professional, data specialist or senior decision-maker, data literacy offers a key to future project success from artificial intelligence.

APM has a huge range of resources to support your data literacy journey. For Corporate Partners the APM Data Literacy Framework helps assess your organisation against benchmarks of knowledge and application. Exclusively for members, APM Learning has a Data Literacy Learning pack, including the interactive APM Body of Knowledge 8th edition and an archive of Project journal articles and other resources. While APM Community allows you to connect with fellow project professionals, share ideas and join our AI and Data Interest Network.

APM Data and AI Conference is on the 26th February in London, book now.