Raman Shah Data Science, LLC

10/09/2025

Over the last couple decades, corporate decay and generative AI have polluted the Internet and broken Internet search. In my most recent Engaging Local Government Leaders post (link below), I share some simple tactics to work around this fundamental challenge in knowledge work.

09/22/2025

Searching the internet has changed a lot in the last few decades, from a robust list of trustworthy sources to a list muddied by advertisements and AI.

Join Raman Shah, an independent data scientist, for some easy ways to navigate the muddy ocean of information online.

Link in the comments for today's Morning Buzz. 🔗

07/16/2025

In case you missed it, my first-ever podcast interview is live! Perhaps a 34-minute listen is easier than a 4100-word read of my three articles on this topic.

I went to the trouble of retelling this story through a medium I'm not comfortable with because I believe in this message that much. If there's anything I can do to protect institutions from bad software initiatives that go 300-600% over budget and schedule and wreck their human capital, I want to do it.

Thanks again to Joe Supervielle and ICMA - International City/County Management Association for having me and for being persistent champions of my research and thinking.

Links to Spotify and Apple Podcast versions in the comments.

07/16/2025

Ever feel like your local government's software is causing more headaches than help? You're not alone! In our latest , data science expert Raman Shah Data Science, LLC dives deep into how to fix, or even better, avoid, those all-too-common software troubles. Learn how to make tech work FOR your community, not against it!

🎧 Listen now to empower your team! https://bit.ly/4028V91

05/15/2025

The truly ruinous waste and trauma of software trouble is marked by a cycle of doubling down to make good on sunk costs. In part 3 of my series with ICMA - International City/County Management Association (link below), I show how goal orientation and psychological safety can break this cycle.

05/08/2025

Why is modern capitalism so good at delivering mechanical wristwatches but so bad at delivering sprawling public-sector software? In Part 2 of my Software Trouble series with ICMA - International City/County Management Association, I offer some practical tools to improve software procurement in .

05/01/2025

If you read nothing else of mine, read this!

In the most challenging writing I've yet tackled as a data scientist (almost two years in the oven!), I have a 3-parter of articles coming out on the ICMA - International City/County Management Association Blog.

I work through my professional acquaintance with "software trouble" - big and overly complex technology deployments that cost way too much (often 300-500% as much as initially advertised), take commensurately too long, and deliver too few benefits assuming they ever launch at all. All of this, while leaving a human tragedy of resignations, early retirements, and burnout in their wake.

A blunder of the scale of software trouble cannot plausibly be forgiven through good deeds elsewhere in a municipal career. Framed more positively, quietly sidestepping software trouble is one of the most valuable, if unsung, things a city or county leader might ever do.

In Part 1 (link in comments), I find that the headwaters of software trouble are further upstream than typically acknowledged. I keep landing on a poorly controlled brainstorming process as a root cause of software trouble and provide some concrete suggestions for using disciplined winnowing and passionate internal champions to prevent it.

I'd love to hear what you think.

01/06/2025

Happy Engaging Local Government Leaders mug exchange! Thanks, Kory Fortman, for the insulated camp mug 😊

If we haven’t met: I’m an independent data scientist. I improve operations by measuring them. When short-staffing threatens the excellence you believe in, I'd love a kind hello!

09/10/2024

In this Engaging Local Government Leaders Morning Buzz, I walk through a tiny little gem of computer science, merge sort, in the process of organizing my spice rack. If you ever find yourself needing to organize 150 things, it will make you 6x faster!

08/15/2024

Happy Engaging Local Government Leaders Day from Pawtucket, RI 😊

If we haven’t met: I’m an independent data scientist. I improve operations by measuring them. When short-staffing threatens the excellence you believe in, well, that’s what I work on, and I’d love a kind hello.

08/14/2024

Merge sort delighted me the very moment it came up on Coursera some evening or weekend in 2013 when I was retooling myself from a chemist into a data scientist.

It's ridiculously useful. A straw poll: Were you taught to code? And do you know merge sort? (If you don't, read on!)

The phrase "additional duties as assigned" unleashes a variety of emotions for local gov professionals. The diversity of the work of public service makes it interesting and fun. It also demands a certain handiness, a collection of weird little skills.

With the help of a spice rack, Raman Shah delves into a jewel among those weird little skills: sorting stuff efficiently.

More: elgl.org/sorting-stuff-efficiently/

06/05/2024

Today’s Morning Buzz is brought to you by Raman Shah, an independent data scientist based in Providence, Rhode Island. Connect with Raman on LinkedIn or Twitter. What I’m working on: A process map of a city’s Planning and Zoning workflow What I’m reading: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert Wh...