Aligning your company’s business intelligence initiatives with overall corporate strategy makes complete sense. Few would argue against such an intuitive approach, especially as articulated by Robert Kaplan, father of the proverbial Balanced Scorecard. Yet a quick review of the real world reminds us how often we defy such thoughtful strategy and instead play things by ear.

In BI and data warehousing organizations, there is a pattern of dissatisfied internal customers and siloed organizations. What is going on? The customer waits. “When will IT finally get their act together and deliver? Why don’t they serve me? Why don’t they understand what I want? I am the reason they exist…they don’t get it!”

One strategy to improve the effectiveness of business intelligence teams is to increase the clarity of roles and responsibilities.

The basic principles of supply and demand pertain to a company’s ability to recruit and retain business intelligence (BI) professionals. My company has been CONNECTing (forgive the pun) data warehousing and business intelligence professionals with consulting and employee positions since 1992. During this 15-year span, we have certainly experienced the cycles of both 1) more-demand-than-supply of qualified resources, and 2) more supply-than-demand of qualified resources.

It was a dark and dreary night in the office space of the business intelligence (BI) team. The internal business customers paced outside the cubicle area, tapping their feet and shaking their heads. “Are they done yet…what’s taking so long? Why can’t I get what I want, when I want it, at the price and quality I deserve? I AM the customer!”

Dave was furious! Barb had committed to finishing the business requirements by Tuesday, and as of Thursday, it still wasn’t done. In their meeting with their CFO and her staff, the financial analysts had specifically requested the reports for the Board meeting on the first of December. Dave was dependent on Barb so he could complete the reports that were due on Monday. So, Dave did what many competent business intelligence professionals do; he vented to a third person on the team, Robin.

The Data Warehousing Maturity Model described by Wayne Eckerson, Director of Research for TDWI, describes six (6) stages that data warehousing initiatives typically move through over time. The stages are defined by a number of characteristics that either move the initiative forward or cause it to stall. One of those factors is related to the “perceptions” of the Business Intelligence (BI) initiative. Since perception is not necessarily a logical, concrete component that technology-type people typically manage, I’d like to share some examples of BI teams and what they have done to manage perception by increasing the visibility of their initiatives

Organizing a data warehousing team can be tricky business, even for relatively simple projects. Technical and managerial challenges abound, and the frenetic pace of corporate life can make weeks seem like days. As with any IT project, the key is to judiciously employ a sound methodology. This article outlines one such step-by-step process for building and organizing DW teams, including several best practices we’ve developed over the years.

Business Intelligence (BI) program and project managers spend the bulk of their time ensuring that projects are completed correctly. But even BI projects that succeed in meeting a timeline and budget can be failures if the results don’t address prioritized business needs and objectives.

(Originally published by TDWI) By Maureen Clarry
(This article is available for download, as a PDF document.)
The latest acronym to take corporate America by storm is BPM: Business Performance Management. A March 2003 TDWI report defines BPM as “a series of business processes and applications that enable the execution of business strategy.” The report’s [...]