The next time you're in L.A., call me and I'll take you to my new favorite spot, Sprinkles. Sprinkles bakes cupcakes ranging in flavors from chocolate to chai latte. To say that they're good would be like saying that Jack Welch knows a little about business.

I was invited to a potluck recently and I drew the dessert card. Rather than whipping up a cake or a pie myself-and if you knew my cooking, you'd thank me-I decided to go to Sprinkles and buy two dozen cupcakes. This turned out to be a fortuitous decision on many levels, especially if you'd tasted the mixed berry cobbler that my friend Darla brought to the potluck. Now I'm the last one to criticize someone's cooking, glass houses and all that. Suffice it to say that slicing into Darla's cobbler was like cutting into a dead body, the skin collapsing and giving way to a viscous, squishy mess. And the taste wasn't too far off either.

When you've got a big project, it's often wise to be circumspect about your organization's incumbent skills. We see more data warehouse teams going it alone these days, and often that's just fine. We find others struggling when it comes to delivering business value in a structured and regular way. And MDM and data governance teams-by their definition new to the task-really have to consider whether it might be better to go outside and get a little help in delivering the goods.

I know, I know, I'm a consultant so I'm hardly unbiased. I'm all for knowledge transfer and making my clients self-sufficient. But many need a little guidance before they take on the task themselves. I mean, if you saw Darla's cobbler at the end of the potluck, gaping at its center, the red-brown juices oozing onto the white tablecloth, flies gathering, its creator keeping her distance, you'd, uh, want a Sprinkles cupcake.

Speaking of which, Darla liked the ginger-lemon cupcake.

Technorati tags: data warehouse consulting, BI consulting, BI skills, MDM, data governance