Course Information
Creative Visualization with Data Analytics
Parking for SAO, Professional Development courses is in Garage B (1511 San Jacinto Blvd.). The Garage signage may read 1511 San Jacinto or Garage B. The elevator in Garage B is not reliable. If you are unable to walk the stairs, please contact the professionaldevelopment@sao.texas.gov for alternate parking arrangements. Handicapped parking is free at the meters around the downtown area.
A course coordinator will Email you a parking permit prior to the course start date. A permit must be displayed or you will be ticketed.
Course Description
Each day the world generates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. Today every organization is tracking and maintaining information they never had to before. That is a lot of data, and our organizational leaders expect us to make sense of it—and not only make sense of it, but also communicate it in a way that it makes sense to busy executives. How do we do that? We visualize it. With a single image, a complex idea can be explained in seconds. A properly laid out chart, graph, or picture can explain at a glance what may take 5 to 10 pages of narrative to explain in a report. In our experience, a busy executive will not take the time to read 10 pages—he or she will simply ask “what’s the bottom line?” Visualizing results instantly provides that bottom line. This course will provide hands-on techniques to complement a data analytics program with state-of-the-art graphics presentations. Participants will learn through real-world case studies and examples of success (and failures) within world-class programs. The class is intended to teach participants to enhance existing data analytics with data visualization.
Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
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Understanding the “what and why” of data visualization
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Identifying areas of opportunity for creating visualizations
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A path to creating successful visualizations
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How data visualization will help an organization
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Case studies to create successful visualizations
Overview of Data
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Data
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Fundamental data analytics techniques
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Duplicates
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Matching
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“Like” attributes
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Gap testing
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Compliance testing and verification
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Red flag attributes
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Data visualization
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Definition
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Examples
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Guidance
Understanding Statistics
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Quantitative relationships
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Benford’s law
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Reasonableness testing
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Fuzzy logic
Picking the Visualization
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Telling the story with a picture instead of words to eliminate misunderstandings
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Determining which visualization format to use depending on the message you are you trying to communicate
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From traditional bars and graphs to scatter plots, geographical maps, and 3D images
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Not getting stuck on bar and line graphs
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Exploration with different formats and when to avoid certain formats
Visualization Will Help You
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Change the way you understand data
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No more looking at static information in a spreadsheet hunting for meaning in the data
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Quickly analyze information to get your message across wordlessly
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Automate continuous reporting
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Reduce audit reporting preparation time
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Answering questions on the fly in meetings
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Audit Committees, Boards, Executives
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External Audit
Case Studies and Exercises
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Examples of when it went wrong without visualizations and how visualizing results could have prevented it
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How visualizations can assist IA
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Audit Committee visualization
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Condensing what’s already been condensed
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One-page reports
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Creating audit-centric visualizations
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Visualizing data quality
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Using public data in visualizations
Instructors
Keith Barber is a Partner with Empower Audit Training & Consulting responsible for Data Analytics Insight, where he specializes in data analytics training, data analytics program implementations, and advancing data analytics programs.
Mr. Barber has extensive experience helping clients solve complex data issues using various software tools. His professional expertise includes data analytics, IT audit, fraud detection, automated control monitoring, the use of Business Intelligence to support strategic decision making, and personnel/project management. During his tenure with the Big 4, Mr. Barber delivered a number of audit data analytics projects in support of financial audit, tax engagements, business risk and IT engagements.
As a Corporate Audit Manager of Data Analytics for a financial services company, Mr. Barber built a world class data analytics program encompassing real-time risk analysis scorecards, sophisticated continuous auditing and monitoring, automated action item tracking and automated a significant amount of the SOX testing. Over the course of his career, his technical expertise and seasoned judgment were key to satisfying client needs, including delivering the right level of customization to ensure that clients received the highest value for their investment. In one instance, Mr. Barber used data analytics to identify and quantify evidence of a $5 million fraud. The evidence provided the board and management with concrete evidence of fraud and facilitated recovery of the funds.
In addition to Mr. Barber’s hands on experience, has trained and developed hundreds of data analysts through training courses he writes and teaches. He has helped organically develop several data analytic programs from the ground up through teaching and training employees within prior organizations.
Mr. Barber received his BS in Computer Science from Madonna University. He is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), ACL Certified Data Analyst (ACDA) and an ACL Certified Trainer. He maintains memberships in the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), ISACA and The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). Mr. Barber has been a featured speaker at numerous industry conferences which has included: 2009 MISTI IT and Audit Controls Conference, 2015 IIA/ISACA GRC Conference, 2016 IIA All Star Conference, 2017 ISACA NACACS Conference, and the 2017 IIA Southern Regional Conference.
Additional Information
TAC Rule 523.142(g) requires the CPE Sponsor to monitor individual attendance and assign the correct number of CPE credits. Participants will be asked to document their time of arrival and departure in compliance with this Rule. Additionally, attendance will be monitored throughout the day and CPE certificates will reflect actual attendance of each participant.
If you are making travel plans to come to Austin, we recommend making "refundable" air and hotel reservations or waiting until 14 days before the class to actually book your reservations. Courses are occasionally canceled or rescheduled due to low enrollment. We determine whether a course has enough participants 16 days prior to the course date. If we cancel or reschedule, we will email the participant and his or her billing contact no later than 14 days before the original class date.
The course coordinator will contact you with parking information. Handicapped parking is free at the meters around the downtown area.
Vending machines with Coca-Cola products and various snack items are available. There is also a refrigerator and microwave in our coffee bar area. Feel free to bring in your own drinks and food if you prefer.
You might want to bring a light sweater or jacket, as room temperatures vary.
To see answers to our Frequently Asked Questions, visit http://www.sao.texas.gov/training/faq.html.