Underestimating the Project Managers

By Evan LevyOne of the most misunderstood roles on a BI team is the Project Manager. All too often the role is defined as an administrative set of activities focused on writing and maintaining the project plan, tracking the budget, and monitoring task completion. Unfortunately IT management rarely understands the importance of domain knowledge—having BI experience—and leadership skills. To assign a BI project manager who has no prior BI experience is an accident waiting to happen. Think about a homeowner who decides to build a new house. He retains a construction company and the foreman has never built a house…

By Evan Levy

One of the most misunderstood roles on a BI team is the Project Manager. All too often the role is defined as an administrative set of activities focused on writing and maintaining the project plan, tracking the budget, and monitoring task completion. Unfortunately IT management rarely understands the importance of domain knowledge—having BI experience—and leadership skills.

To assign a BI project manager who has no prior BI experience is an accident waiting to happen. Think about a homeowner who decides to build a new house. He retains a construction company and the foreman has never built a house before. You’d want fundamental knowledge of demolition, framing, plumbing, wiring, and so on. The foreman would need to understand that the work was being done in the right way.

Unfortunately IT managers think they can position certified project managers on BI teams without any knowledge of BI-specific development processes, business decision-making, data content, or technology. We often find ourselves coaching these project managers on the differences in BI development, or introducing concepts like staging areas or federated queries. This is time that could be better spent transferring knowledge and formalizing development processes with a more seasoned project lead.

In order for a project team to be successful, the project manager should have strong leadership skills. The ability to communicate a common goal and ensure focus is both art and science. But BI project managers often behave more like bureaucrats, requesting task completion percentages and reviewing labor hours. They are rarely invested in whether the project is adhering to development standards, if permanent staff is preparing to take ownership of the code, or whether the developers are collaborating.

An effective BI project manager should be a project leader. He or she should understand that the definition of success is not a completed project plan or budget spreadsheet, but rather that the project delivers usable data and fulfills requirements. The BI project manager should instill the belief that success doesn’t mean task completion, but delivery against business goals.

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