Best Practices in BI

[The Editor]

All,

I would like to start a thread on what other forum members consider the 'best practices' in Business Intelligence. What is a practice for that matter? Is it a process that is being followed or is it more about how you implement a tool correctly. What makes a BI department or group successful. How do you measure the worth of BI to a company ?

Is this subject 'black and white' or is it very subjective and varies between sites. I recently heard that a large financial institution had started a program called 'World Standard Business Intelligence'. Is this akin to the Emporers New Clothes story or have they geniunely surveyed all of the worlds BI consumers and settled on the best possible practices that should be used. Will they be more successful than any other BI implementation ?

I realise that this is a very subjective topic but I am very keen to hear the thoughts of other members in this forum. Thats what this forum is for right ?

Is it different in the Data Warehouse space or are there clear cut practices and methodologies that should be followed.

Very keen to hear your thoughts.

[Doug Heywood]

Cross-post is here.

[zeyadsweidan]

In my opinion and based on my limited experience and various discussions with fellow practitioners (have not surveyed the world yet, in many instances the people who are running BI projects have their own understanding of the steps required to be performed and in many instances they missed or deliberatly (for time,budget constraints or management pressure) skipped steps which are fundamental to the project. These steps which I call the minimum practice for building BI solutions.

I believe as a first step, we need to ensure we practice the fundamental steps (minimum practice) and ensure we are fully familiar and confident about the steps and then the next step would be to improve the practice to be a better one.

By the way, at ACS BI SIG, we are planning to have a session in September to discuss causes of failure in BI projects. Details below:
http://www.acs.org.au/index.cfm?acti...10109754057249

Regards,
ZS

[Steve Bennett]

Originally Posted by zeyadsweidan

In my opinion and based on my limited experience and various discussions with fellow practitioners (have not surveyed the world yet, in many instances the people who are running BI projects have their own understanding of the steps required to be performed and in many instances they missed or deliberatly (for time,budget constraints or management pressure) skipped steps which are fundamental to the project. These steps which I call the minimum practice for building BI solutions.

I believe as a first step, we need to ensure we practice the fundamental steps (minimum practice) and ensure we are fully familiar and confident about the steps and then the next step would be to improve the practice to be a better one.

Good points! So what is the minimum practice? Or in other words, which steps of the 'standard' DWH project can you not do and still meet minimum practice? Is each step necessary?

How are BI appliances like Neteeza measured? They claim to make redundant many of the 'standard' DWH project activities.

Originally Posted by zeyadsweidan

By the way, at ACS BI SIG, we are planning to have a session in September to discuss causes of failure in BI projects. Details below:
http://www.acs.org.au/index.cfm?acti...10109754057249

Regards,
ZS

Also, I clicked on the link and the idea for the ACS BI SIG session is a great idea. I will register and hope that the planned research gives us some shared insights.

Steve

[JohnnyBgood]

IT must settle hottest debates to thrive: Gartner

Snippet from Computerworld Today 14/10/2008

"At a time when there is little in the way of additional budget available, CIOs need to know where and when to focus to best assist and improve enterprise performance." Ken McGee, vice president and Gartner Fellow, in a statement released by the research firm.

Gartner analysts have outlined the most contentious issues the IT sector will face in the next two years at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2008.

"The failure of many organisations to develop a business intelligence vision and strategy is another hot issue, with IT leaders lamenting this loss and business managers believing it to be unnecessary."

The Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2008is being held in Orlando, Florida until October 16.

[Doug Heywood]

From ARN:

Gartner says key to BI is talk, not tech.
Establish metrics, training and support before buying.

Darren Pauli (Computerworld) 23 February, 2009 15:57:00

Research firm Gartner has warned organisations against splurging on technology for Business Intelligence (BI) projects.

Speaking of the discipline of Business Intelligence, rather than the technology, Gartner global BI manager Ian Bertram said organisations will fail if they “throw products at the problem” and do not invest in training or acquire business support.

The BI discipline involves analysis of raw data through data mining and online analytical processing which companies can use to find malfunctioning machines, improve manufacturing processors and cut costs.

The sticking points, Bertram said, are as much about improving poor communication and BI skills, as sifting useful data from the rubbish.

“Organisations tend to throw technology at BI problems. You could have the right tool, but it could be doomed to failure because of political and cultural issues, an absence of executive support so the message doesn't get out, and poor communication and training,” Bertram said.

“It provides transparency through all levels of business right down to the forklift driver and can help business to react fast to competition and change.”

Gartner says BI is top of mind for CIOs, along with enterprise information and content management, data management and integration, and social software and collaboration. It has remained in top spot for three years in the firm's annual Executive Programmes survey, while the firm predicts BI vendor revenue in the Asia Pacific region will increase by a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 15.5 percent by 2011, thanks in part to emerging green field developments.

Bertram said many organisations struggle to find benchmarks and metrics and do not know where to define objectives.

“Having a standard set of enterprise metrics sounds easy but can be quite complex, we've come across organisations with a 1000 metrics, but follow the old Kaplan and Norton balanced scorecard and focus on 'visionary' metrics at the top,” he said.

Subsequent metrics gathered from all levels of an organisation should assist with achieving the “visionary” objectives.

Gartner has defined the BI competency centre to resolve problems it claims derive from poor communication between businesses units. Representatives from each unit chair the centre and are tasked with deciding how BI can best serve their field of work, including defining governance, appropriate metrics and architecture, and staff training.

Bertram, who will this week discuss the BI competency centre at a Sydney Summit, said businesses of all sizes can make money from a well planned BI process.

“Sydney Water saved millions when it found [though BI] one of its turbines was running all the time... They were able to balance the load across other turbines,” he said.

“You could pick a number of organisations from every sector and find those that haven't managed [BI] projects well. They realise the BI technology is not a silver bullet and that it is intrinsically linked to business process and management of applications and data.”

Gartner will hold its first BI excellence award for Australia at the end of day one at the summit. A short list of three, including India's ICICI Bank, Singapore's Tetra Pak, and Australia's Amcor, were whittled down by industry judges from some 20 nominations and will showcase their projects to the summit's voting audience.