Or Yes?  

[In a previous post: Top reasons your BI project will fail.  I wrote about the the most common reasons Business Intelligence projects fail.  In the next series of blogs, I will expand on methods and techniques to avoid these failures.]

Agile may be a scary concept for the project management mindset that is reliant on the traditional waterfall methodology.  The fear is that agile can derail BI projects.  Without proper understanding and discipline, the team may use the “agile” tag to go off and develop non-valuable assets.  However taking and agile approach to BI can have a huge payoff, as long as the team plays by agile best practices.

Agile does not mean the team can begin development based on a one sentence user story.  Nor does it mean that quality assurance and testing can be sacrificed in the name of client deliverables.  A seasoned practitioner will guide the team around such poor decision making.   Complete user stories require collaboration with stakeholders, but the process is not onerous or time consuming. Starting with a clear understanding of requirements, even in a formative state, will get the project headed in the correct direction.     Agile is beneficial in Business Intelligence (BI) projects when the team leader implements the discipline required for agile development.

Agile traps to avoid:

• Failure to clarify requirements
• Foregoing testing to shorten release cycle
• Lack of understanding of agile process
• Skipping the sprint retrospective because it is painful (retro)

So why introduce Agile into the BI development process?  

Business Intelligence projects benefit from a quick feedback and turnaround loop.  Typically data and result sets can be quickly rendered. That data is then evaluated for accuracy, efficacy, and customer feedback to plan the next enhancement.  This does not imply endless iterative cycles to get the correct result. The adherence to agile best practices drive purposeful development cycles to meet the market demands.  

Benefits of Agile in BI:

• Careful sprint planning delivers high value every sprint
• Consistent team sprints build cohesiveness and velocity
• Short cycles (sprints) empower team to quickly respond to changing customer needs

In contrast to the rigid structure and timelines of a traditional waterfall methodology, managing a BI project in Agile provides many advantages. Agile planning cycles help the team clarify the business context and laser focus in on the goals.  Agile allows for short incremental product deliverable cycles.  Short cycling allows the customer to see tangible progress early in the development cycle.  The realization of that value prompts provide critical feedback to give to the developers for the next sprint cycle.  

Key message:   Properly managed agile methodology in Business Intelligence projects delivers consistent value.  Experienced Agile leadership of the end to end team (development to customer) will drive success.

About: Andrew Bourne is an entrepreneur, leader, business intelligence consultant, and writer.  He leads high performing technical teams solving difficult business challenges.  He recently completed a project designing, developing and implementing a suit of Global Supply Chain Analytics (BI) products for the largest corporations in the world in Technology, Manufacturing and Pharmaceuticals.   Andrew writes about solving big technical challenges, team cohesiveness, project velocity, and staying on the critical path.  To learn more about Andrew’s experience, engagements and availability, email abourne@predictive.it or via Linkedin