In a previous blog post I wrote about ”Top Reasons Your Business Intelligence (BI) Project Will Fail”. That post was based on 20+ experience working with large and mid sized companies. In the next series of posts, I hope to convey techniques and methods to increase the likelihood of success in your BI project.

Let’s say your project is off and running. Data is flowing into your data warehouse (or repository) and you have begun releasing visualizations to your stakeholders. Everything is great, right?

No?

Perhaps you are experiencing problems with the velocity with which you can get content out the door. Or, is adoption of the analytics not as widespread as the organization had expected. Maybe your team is swamped with questions from confused users. What can you do?

Get close to the data

Developing world-class analytics solutions is about one thing: DATA. Don’t kid yourself about pretty visualizations, slick delivery, and cool filters. If the development team does not have an adequate business level understanding of the data, it will miss the mark every time.

What does it mean to get close to the data? To start with, most BI developers understand the technical aspects: what is a “varchar”, how to represent a date, currency conversions, etc. However, where many initiatives fail is with an understanding of the semantics. What does that specific date column mean to a business user? What processes are reliant on that date and why? What is the implication if the date is wrong in that column (for whatever reason)? Education of the internal team as to the meaning of the data is time (and money) well spent.

Knowing the meaning is important in understanding the end user goals of any analytic. Knowing the data will also increase the velocity of development as iterative cycles become shorter. It will take fewer cycles to release relevant content. Take the time to work with subject matter experts to understand the meaning of the data.

Get closer to the customer

Now that the team has a working understanding of the semantics of the data, time for step two: get closer to the customer. Whether your customers are internal, external, or both, having clarity around their needs will lead to BI success. To get closer, start by writing simple use cases for each customer problem. A use case can be as simple as a “user story.” As a BLANK, I need BLANK, so I can accomplish BLANK. The BLANKs are not to be replaced by technical terminology.

Here is a sample use case: “As a budget owner, I need to understand the monthly spend that hits my budget for shipping, warehouse, and human resources so that I can make better vendor selection decisions.” You can read how to write a good use case on the web. The beauty of the use case is that it conveys the persona (budget owner) the need (spend amounts) and why (make better decisions). Notice that there are neither technical terms nor description of a report, analytic, visualization. Properly written use cases demonstrate team clarity around the goal. They will also free the team from some preconceived notion of the solution. That unlocks the creativity.

The side benefits are enormous. This process communicates to the business that the team cares are trying to understand and solve a problem. It also puts the team in a position to ask questions and learn from the business.

Next time you find your team confused, or lacking direction, remember to get close to the data, and closer to the customer. It won’t solve all your BI problems, but more on that in the next posting.