By Sydney Metzmaker
Data can move the mission — and when it does, it’s one of the most powerful forces in government operations. When data flows seamlessly from the tactical edge to the strategic level, it doesn’t just make individual workflows easier; it creates momentum that ripples across the entire mission.
Despite advances in technology and the real promise of AI, many agencies today still struggle to turn raw data into actionable insights, leaving analysts bogged down in manual preparation rather than making decisions that advance the mission. A 2025 survey of 1,400 data, IT, and operations analysts reveals that 76% still rely on spreadsheets for data preparation, despite using AI tools elsewhere. Analysts average 10.6 hours per week on data cleaning and collection, spending only slightly more time (11.2 hours) on actual analysis.
To truly make data move the mission, it must be transformed from a burden into a capability. That shift—where data is instantly usable, trusted, and actionable at every level—is where small wins in the everyday become big wins in impact. Let’s take a look at how in an ideal state, data can shape the mission at every level of an organization.
At the most tactical level, data can shape the everyday workflows of frontline teams. It can determine how quickly an analyst can reconcile a dataset, how seamlessly a caseworker can access information across systems, or how confidently an operator can flag an anomaly. These small efficiencies aren’t glamorous, but they add up. Every minute saved or error prevented compounds into hours and days redirected back to the mission.
Step up a level, and data becomes the foundation for operational decisions. Command centers, program managers, and delivery teams rely on accurate, real-time information to coordinate across functions. Here, the impact isn’t about saving minutes—it’s about synchronizing efforts. Data creates alignment, prevents duplication, and accelerates decision-making at the scale of entire units or agencies.
At the highest level, data provides leaders with the confidence to set strategy and allocate resources. It’s what enables them to move from reactive to proactive decision-making, to spot patterns before they become crises, and to measure progress against mission outcomes. Strategic decisions may be made in the boardroom or briefing, but they depend on the reliability of thousands of tactical and operational data points feeding upward.
The real power of data emerges when these levels aren’t siloed. A tactical improvement in workflow reliability enables faster operational decisions, which, in turn, strengthens the strategic insight available to leadership. The ripple effect is what turns data from a buzzword into a mission capability.
Too often, agencies focus their data strategies on only one level. Think building dashboards for leadership without fixing frontline workflows or streamlining processes without linking them to strategic outcomes. The most successful modernization efforts connect all three.
In my role leading operations and delivery, this connection is what I think about every day. I’ve seen how a single workflow improvement—say, automating a previously manual process to build a critical report—does more than save time for one analyst. It improves data quality, which strengthens operational coordination, which ultimately gives leadership better information to drive mission strategy.
That’s the multiplier effect of data: when managed well, small changes ripple upward into mission outcomes.
If agencies want data to move their missions forward, they must see it not as a tool for one level of decision-making, but as the connective tissue across tactical, operational, and strategic layers.
Invest in frontline workflows. Align data to operational needs. Use it to power strategy. That’s how data truly moves the mission—at every level.