The Five Fatal Flaws of BI

Over the last eighteen years, I’ve been associated with a large number of BI projects and have been able to see first-hand what behaviors correlate most closely with success and failure.

In particular, there are five main erroneous assumptions about implementing BI that can lead to failure. This list is condensed and a little simplistic: every single one of these bullets could be a blog posting on its own — and I hope to get around to doing just that one day…
1. BI isn’t about technology, it’s about people.

80% of the time and effort that goes into implementing BI is typically devoted to the technology and the data. But BI success is determined primarily by people, process, organization, culture, expectation setting, and leadership.

    * User adoption. Giving somebody a pencil won’t make them Picasso. Organizations typically under-invest in training and culture changes necessary to make the best use of BI. It’s easy to over-deliver to a small number of vocal, technical users that can clearly articulate their needs, and miss the greater value of a broad deployment to less technical users.
    * The IT/Business relationship. BI is meeting point between the tens of millions of dollars invested in IT and the business strategy it is supposed to support. There has to be an equal partnership between IT and the business. A “tough-love” approach that mixes firmness with diplomacy and establishes clear areas of control is the most likely to be successful.
    * Marketing the solution. Successful BI requires not just “promotion,” but an ongoing effort to match the “product” to the real needs of the users. Internal prizes for the best business use of BI can provide a win/win/win situation for IT, users, and executives.
    * Self-awareness. Many BI leaders have a background in technology. If they are uncomfortable with the people-intensive roles needed to make BI successful, these should be delegated to those who delight in them.

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