Fig. 16.1.5 Nearly every occurrence is bereft of business value.

Fig. 16.1.5 shows that there is a lot of data. And only one occurrence out of all the data is
of interest. That one unit of data is shown in a different color. The red unit becomes lost
in all the other data.

In order to illustrate the million in one syndrome, consider this. A record is made of every
phone call in the United States every day. In a day's time, there will be hundreds of
millions of phone calls for which a record is made. Every time a dial tone is made, a new
record is recorded.

Now, suppose an analyst is looking for phone calls made by a terrorist. In a day's time out
of hundreds of millions of records, the analyst may find two or three calls. The
probability of a phone call being of interest approximates 1/100,000,000. The odds are
infinitesimal that any phone call may have a legitimate business interest. And finding that
one or two phone calls out of all the phone calls is a really complex and expensive thing
to do.

There is a tremendous amount of data that is stored in order to find a paucity of business
value

That is one reason for the equations shown in Fig. 16.1.4.

Where Business Value Occurs

But there is another reason for the relationship shown in Fig. 16.1.4. That reason is that
the preponderance of business value occurs where there is the least data. Fig. 16.1.6
shows this phenomenon.

Chapter 16.1: Business Value and the End-State Architecture