By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
SmartData Collective
  • Analytics
    AnalyticsShow More
    construction analytics
    5 Benefits of Analytics to Manage Commercial Construction
    5 Min Read
    benefits of data analytics for financial industry
    Fascinating Changes Data Analytics Brings to Finance
    7 Min Read
    analyzing big data for its quality and value
    Use this Strategic Approach to Maximize Your Data’s Value
    6 Min Read
    data-driven seo for product pages
    6 Tips for Using Data Analytics for Product Page SEO
    11 Min Read
    big data analytics in business
    5 Ways to Utilize Data Analytics to Grow Your Business
    6 Min Read
  • Big Data
  • BI
  • Exclusive
  • IT
  • Marketing
  • Software
Search
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Agile BI (What it is, Why it is)
Share
Notification Show More
Latest News
cloud-centric companies using network relocation
Cloud-Centric Companies Discover Benefits & Pitfalls of Network Relocation
Cloud Computing
construction analytics
5 Benefits of Analytics to Manage Commercial Construction
Analytics
database compliance guide
Four Strategies For Effective Database Compliance
Data Management
Digital Security From Weaponized AI
Fortifying Enterprise Digital Security Against Hackers Weaponizing AI
Security
DevOps on cloud
Optimizing Cost with DevOps on the Cloud
Cloud Computing Development Exclusive IT
Aa
SmartData Collective
Aa
Search
  • About
  • Help
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
SmartData Collective > Business Intelligence > Agile BI (What it is, Why it is)
Business Intelligence

Agile BI (What it is, Why it is)

MIKE20
Last updated: 2010/11/25 at 9:59 AM
MIKE20
8 Min Read
SHARE
- Advertisement -

“I told the project development team what I wanted and all they ever do is hiding for 6 months, never to be heard from and then ultimately they do not deliver what I wanted! Their process doesn’t work!”

Ever heard this statement from customers? Most of us are familiar with not only such statement but a series of similar reactions from customers. Reactions like these enforced BI evangelists to think about the real problem of using waterfall model for BI projects.

- Advertisement -

This problem lead to the new model for BI projects, called Agile BI.

More Read

DevOps is the new agile

Here’s Why DevOps Is The New Agile In 2019, And Why It Matters

4 Ways To Handle The Challenges Of DevOps Implementations
Was Edison “Agile”? Extracting New Value from Old Techniques
Delivering Data Warehousing and BI Projects using Agile
Agility in Action

“I told the project development team what I wanted and all they ever do is hiding for 6 months, never to be heard from and then ultimately they do not deliver what I wanted! Their process doesn’t work!”

Ever heard this statement from customers? Most of us are familiar with not only such statement but a series of similar reactions from customers. Reactions like these enforced BI evangelists to think about the real problem of using waterfall model for BI projects.

This problem lead to the new model for BI projects, called Agile BI.

- Advertisement -

Agile is all about Evolution. With Agile mode of work, Projects follow iterative development model rather than going to traditional waterfall model. Agile BI is getting fame in market because it simplifies and accelerates the development of business intelligence applications. It is an evolution of traditional BI development methods that continues to evolve as best practices and project experiences accumulate.

Since Agile can mean different things in the overall context of BI, I think it is worthwhile to take a ‘first principles’ approach. Agility in BI has to be evaluated in context of the Agile Manifesto, (http://agilemanifesto.org) which describes a set of values (4) & principles (12) of the agile way of doing things.

To me, the following core tenets of agile methodology make it very relevant for BI systems:

1) Shared vision among teams
2) Frequent releases that makes business sense
3) Relentlessly manage scope
4) Creating a multi-release framework with a master plan
5) Accommodating changes gracefully

Following are few characteristics of an Agile BI:

- Advertisement -

Iterative, Incremental, Evolutionary – First and foremost Agile Business Intelligence is an iterative, incremental, and evolutionary style of development. We work in short iterations that are generally 1-3 weeks long, and never more than 4 weeks. We build the system in small increments or “chunks” of user-valued functionality. And we evolve the working system by adapting to frequent user feedback.

Feature Driven Development – The goal of each development iteration is the production of user-valued features. What users of BI systems care about is the presentation of, and access to information that either helps them solve a business problem or make better business decisions. Every iteration must produce at least one new user-valued feature in spite of the fact that user features are just the tip of the architectural iceberg that is a BI system.

Production Quality – Each newly developed feature must be fully tested and debugged during the development iteration. Agile development is not about building hollow prototypes, it is about incrementally evolving to the right solution with the best architectural underpinnings. We do this by integrating testing and QA early and continuously into the development process

Barely Sufficient Processes – Traditional styles of BI development are rife with a high degree of ceremony. I’ve worked on many projects that involved elaborate stage gate meetings between stages of development such the transition from requirements analysis to design. These gates are almost always accompanied by a formal document that must be “signed off” as part of the gating process. In spite of this ceremony many BI projects struggle or founder. Agile BI emphasizes a sufficient amount of ceremony to meet the practical needs of the project (and future generations) but nothing more.

Automation, Automation, Automation – The only way to be truly agile is to automate as many routine processes as possible. Agile BI teams seek to automate any process that is done more than once. The more you can automate, the more you can focus on developing user features. Test automation is perhaps the most critical form of automation. If you must test your features and system manually, then guess how often you’re likely to rerun your tests? Test automation enables you to frequently re-validate that everything is still working as expected.

- Advertisement -

Collaboration – Too often in traditional projects the development team solely bears the burden of ensuring that timelines are met, complete scope is delivered, budgets are managed, and quality is ensured. Agile business intelligence acknowledges that there is a broader project community that shares responsibility for project success. The project community includes the sub-communities of users, business owners, stakeholders, executive sponsors, technical experts, project managers, etc. Frequent collaboration between the technical and user communities is critical to success

Self-Organizing / Self- Managing Teams – Hire the best people, give them the tools and support they need, then stand aside and allow them to be successful. There is a key shift in agile project management style compared to traditional project management. The agile project manager’s role is to enable the team to work their magic; and to facilitate a high degree of collaboration with users and other members of the project community

I have found agile framework especially useful in the BI context where development (enhancements to BI landscape) and support (sustenance of the existing BI infrastructure) happens concurrently.

BI professionals have long been advocates of 90-day increments: Get the results to the users quickly in order to continue building momentum and interest in ongoing project funding. However, incremental isn’t agile no matter how short the increments or how fast the iterations. The agile difference is in participation and interaction–not just building things quickly, but building the right things quickly. The participative model of agile brings with it the promise of breaking away from the “just another report” syndrome that plagues virtually every BI team.

In my view, Agile BI is clearly here to stay and succeed, since most traditional, non-Agile BI platforms and applications will be increasingly challenged to keep pace with a world moving at lightning speed.

- Advertisement -

Read more at MIKE2.0: The Open Source Standard for Information Management

TAGGED: agile
MIKE20 November 25, 2010
Share this Article
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn
Share
- Advertisement -

Follow us on Facebook

Latest News

cloud-centric companies using network relocation
Cloud-Centric Companies Discover Benefits & Pitfalls of Network Relocation
Cloud Computing
construction analytics
5 Benefits of Analytics to Manage Commercial Construction
Analytics
database compliance guide
Four Strategies For Effective Database Compliance
Data Management
Digital Security From Weaponized AI
Fortifying Enterprise Digital Security Against Hackers Weaponizing AI
Security

Stay Connected

1.2k Followers Like
33.7k Followers Follow
222 Followers Pin

You Might also Like

DevOps is the new agile
DevelopmentExclusive

Here’s Why DevOps Is The New Agile In 2019, And Why It Matters

4 Min Read
DevOps Implementations
AnalyticsExclusiveIT

4 Ways To Handle The Challenges Of DevOps Implementations

7 Min Read

Was Edison “Agile”? Extracting New Value from Old Techniques

7 Min Read

Delivering Data Warehousing and BI Projects using Agile

8 Min Read

SmartData Collective is one of the largest & trusted community covering technical content about Big Data, BI, Cloud, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, IoT & more.

AI chatbots
AI Chatbots Can Help Retailers Convert Live Broadcast Viewers into Sales!
Artificial Intelligence Chatbots Exclusive
AI and chatbots
Chatbots and SEO: How Can Chatbots Improve Your SEO Ranking?
Artificial Intelligence Chatbots Exclusive

Quick Link

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Follow US

© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.

Removed from reading list

Undo
Go to mobile version
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?