Catalog - Tile Detail - Context¶
Overview¶
Do you want to add some crucial business context or additional information to the data you uploaded in the AgileData App?
By using the “Context” feature within the Catalog Tile Details, you can easily add and update business context to your data with one click.
It is important to keep the data within your organisation structured and well-annotated to prevent chaos seeping into your workflows and business processes. Data is rarely self-explanatory and you might have team members who aren’t data analysts and require further information to understand the purpose of your data.
The “Context” field in your tiles is the ideal place to keep a permanent record of this information, making it easy for everyone to put your uploaded data into context or read about essential insights you extracted from it.
Steps¶
1. Choosing a tile with data to add context to¶
To add context to the data, click on any tile in the catalog. In our example we are going to use a Consume Tile with data about business grant recipients in New Zealand.
After clicking on the tile you can preview technical information about the data like created rules, number of fields and number of records. If you scroll down a bit you reach an area named “Context”. If you haven’t added any context yet, the field will still be empty.
2. Adding new context to a tile¶
To add new context to a tile click on the “Add” button at the right side of the “Context” field.
You can enter the context in the popup window including formatting. You can also paste the context if you already have it documented somewhere else. When you are ready to save the context, click on “Add”.
Once the context is saved, you can view it in the “Context” field along the date on which it got added and the user who added it.
3. Editing existing context¶
If you want to change existing context, click on the “Edit” button at the right side of the “Context” field.
Input changes as needed including formatting. If you’re finished, click on “Update”.
The new version of the context will get displayed along with the date when it was updated and the user who updated it. You can still see and access the previous version of the context in the sidebar on the left. This provides version control for your business context.
You can edit the context as often as you want. Each time you edit it, a new version will get recorded together with the date in the sidebar.
4. Reverting to a previous version of context¶
If you would like to restore a previous version of the context, you can easily do so by clicking on the date of the version in the sidebar.
Click on the “Revert” button at the right side.
In a popup window you can confirm that you want to revert to this version. Click on “Revert” to proceed.
You can view the restored version of the context as a new record in the sidebar.
Use Cases¶
1. Enhance data understanding with business context¶
Putting data into business context can add a lot of value to it. It’s important to keep track of how and when your data got collected, which part of your organisation is responsible for it, who owns the data and how it should get processed or interpreted. Furthermore, business context can be an essential part of your organisation’s data governance framework or data strategy.
With the “Context” feature in AgileData it is easy to add business context to any tile, enabling you to save all the information about your data in one place. The version control abilities help your team members to stay organised and keep track of any changes. This way anyone in your organisation can directly understand the context of the data while previewing it in the AgileData App.
2. Taking quick notes about the data¶
If you are a data analyst or consultant who just wants to note down some quick thoughts or questions about the uploaded data, the “Context” feature can help you to save these small pieces of information directly in the AgileData App.
Analysing data and gaining the necessary insights can be a lengthy process and side information can get quickly lost. By noting everything down in the “Context” field you can save your thoughts and open tasks during the data analysis on-the-fly and don’t need to switch to a different app. Besides that all your notes will be visible to your team members, making it easier to collaborate while analysing data or working with clients.
3. Retain your corporate knowledge¶
By capturing the business context of your data in the AgileData App, you can ensure this context is retained if one of your data team leave your organisation. It is no longer stuck in a specific individuals head, it is readily accessible to whoever needs it.
All in all the “Context” feature is a versatile tool to save extended information about your data directly in the tile.