CPDA™ Spotlight

The CPDA Spotlight was created by the Petroleum Data Management Certification Committee (PDMCC) to recognize the amazing achievements of our Certified Petroleum Data Analysts. Celebrating their projects, presentations, papers and professional leadership strengths. CPDAs nominate themselves, or be nominated by a member of the community, to be featured.

Are you, or you do you know of, a CPDA who has been up to something interesting in their role as a certified professional petroleum data analyst? Let us know by submitting a nomination!

Ankur Agarwal
Ankur Agarwal has been instrumental in helping various organizations in a never-ending battle of managing the E&P data for more than a decade. He achieved his CPDA credential in 2019.

Q & A

  1. Tell us about your data management professional journey.
    It has been 14 years since I started my journey as a Business Analyst, and today I am still trying to figure out how to better manage “data”. Professionally I have seen more technological advancement, automation, and analytics, yet I still see the same problems with the data. I am in constant pursuit to acquire new skills related to Business Intelligence, Big data, and Cloud technologies. My goal is to be able to combine my understanding about oil and gas data with newly acquired to skills to better position myself personally and professionally.
  2. Tell us why taking the CPDA exam became a priority out of the professional certifications you wanted to achieve.
    The CPDA is the only globally recognized data management certification designed to test the knowledge areas aligned with the E & P industry data lifecycle. Being a Certified Petroleum Data Analyst has helped me to quantify and qualify my skills in Oil and Gas data management.
  3. What tangible and intangible benefits have you gained from having your CPDA credentials?
    Being a part of the CPDA community at large, and having the ability to learn and share my knowledge have been the key benefits gained from my CPDA credential.
  4. You are an active volunteering member of PPDM. Tell us how serving on a committee with PPDM has elevated your level of knowledge in the data management profession.
    I am an active member of the PPDM Communications Team with a goal of increasing the user engagement rates on social media platforms. As we come up with monthly content focused for discussion on PPDM's social media platforms it has increased my knowledge in the DAMA DMBOK and CPDA competency areas.
  5. If you could be the CEO for a day in an E&P company, what is one piece of advice you would communicate to your leadership about data management?
    In the recent times the compounded annual growth of data owned by organizations has increased by 69%. “Good Quality” is the foundation required for any organization to succeed. I would work with my leadership team to inoculate a data driven culture which would be built on the 3Ps (People, Process and Predictive) with data quality and data governance experience as a centerpiece.
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