Agile Business Intelligence Methodology – a productive BI implementation for enterprises

Agile Business Intelligence methodology is experiencing rebirth as the most preferred way of implementing BI programs to supply the organizational agility and flexibility needed in the present competitive environment.

“Agile BI is not just an esoteric software development term. It is essential in creating an agile organization,” claims Michael de Andrade, MD of data management and BI specialist, EnterpriseWorx. “The fact that the theme of the global Data Warehousing Institute focuses on ‘Creating an Agile BI Environment’ is evidence of this. So is a recent Forrester Research report, which indicates that ballooning data volumes combined with complex IT environments have put pressure on legacy BI tools.

“Multiple components including data integration, cleansing, modeling, warehousing, metrics creation and management reports must be fitted together in a meaningful BI application,” asserts de Andrade. “But stakeholders are largely dissatisfied with BI applications’ agility and flexibility.” “Agile BI must be considered as a way to get development and implementation done faster and to react more quickly to changing business requirements. It calls for incrementally delivering products versus detailed planning and specifications.”

At the outset, it is important to discover from managers what key performance signals they want to run the business in order to develop acceptable charts and dashboards. This involves carrying out a range of interviews. Using a flexible process, we will be able to gather and investigate the prerequisites at the exact same time, and start delivering on the first necessities, while gathering others. BI is an iterative process not a single-stop destination.
It is open to continuing fine-tuning that permits management to get more revelations from their information assets, in order to create a flexible organization. Some setups price consistency firstly, and focus on putting rigid structures, processes, data standards and data governance processes in place before starting on any IT project, including BI. Others understand such processes and standards as too restrictive, cumbersome and slow, believing it's more necessary to be nimble and flexible. In de Andrade's view, what's needed is a balance.
“Organizations need to put appropriate standards and processes in place that can support speed, change and adaptability – and also consistency,” he asserts. EnterpriseWorx makes sure that projects are delivered on time and inside budget by employing flexible project management methodologies like Scrum. This is a tried-and-tested iterative development framework, which has a group of practices and predefined roles, used to control complicated projects.
It is excellent for any project concerning database and BI development as it permits the management team to quickly identify and resolve bottlenecks. “This means that customers get their software customization and implementation projects in usable phases, which speeds up delivery and provides business benefits more quickly,” asserts de Andrade. “As with any IT project, it is important to draw up a project definition document that states the expected outcome and includes an assessment of the risks inherent in implementing the system, along with ways of mitigating these.
“Forward planning is the key to being agile in practice. However, although ‘agile BI’ as a methodology can assist in creating organizational agility, it is not the same thing. Constant change has become the norm, and organizations need to embrace agility as a business imperative if they are to succeed in a world that moves at breakneck speed.”