Pitfalls to be Avoided in Business Intelligence Implementations
All of us who are interested in Business intelligence must have heard of, or had been part of success stories of Business Intelligence Implementations while some of us has also been part of / heard of / tasted business intelligence failures. In this blog I would like to discuss on some of the common pitfalls which if best avoided will translate all business intelligence project to success stories.
In every assignment you can go for continuous requirements phase till you actually don't halt them or cut to be taken rest for next release as all projects are subject to constantly changing requirements. One way to manage this is scope document. Once the scope is defined than we start customizing the Business Intelligence product we are going to use. It has been observed that too much of customization is something which should be avoided as it has huge impact on cost during customization itself and then on its maintenance. If customization can be avoided by standardizing the process across industry, this option should be explored. If already available Business Intelligence product needs lots of customization, option of going for a new in-house product should be explored than going for a packaged product.
Lack of training to the end users is again a big risk that should be avoided while implementing a Business Intelligence Applications as in the absence of the implemented application everybody was having some or the other way to discover their information might not through the right source, following right processes, in right time but the work has been going on. The whole idea of having the new system in place is to be used by the end users who without proper training could not use it to the best benefit of self and the organization. A significant time should be spent on user training (Train the Trainer within organization) for the Business Intelligence Applications’ so as to explain the functionality, develop interest in end users.
Stakeholder's involvement is a must. Stakeholders’ involvement and getting the status of the project helps understand and track the progress of the project on a regular basis. All Stakeholders need to be aware of the current state and help in taking to next level. An implementation having disinterested, non - involved Stake holder is always at risk.
In the absence of proper Business Intelligence roadmap it has been observed that owners are not completely aware how the Business intelligence implementation is going to fit into their overall business strategy. It proves to be another reporting system that an analytical system.
Quality of Data has been one of the big challenges of the Business intelligence program as most of the decisions are based on data and in the absence of good quality data one is not able to take right decision. This hinders the business users to take decision based on data in the system. Business users should be rest assured that data in the Business Intelligence application is of better quality than the transactional system and decisions can be based on this.
Hopefully, all of you who are working on Business Intelligence programs are not encountering any of the above pitfalls. If you are encountering any of these, this is a signal of potential problem in future. Please think, discuss and plan to avoid and make your implementation a success story.
