Successful Business Intelligence:
Secrets to Making BI a Killer App by
Cindi Howson
Excellent Book For Those New To Bi Or Running Bi Shops
Praise for Successful Business Intelligence
"If you want to be an analytical competitor, you've got to go well
beyond business intelligence technology. Cindi Howson has wrapped up
the needed advice on technology, organization, strategy, and even culture
in a neat package. It's required reading for quantitatively oriented
strategists and the technologists who support them." --Thomas H.
Davenport, President's Distinguished Professor, Babson College and
co-author, Competing on Analytics
"When used strategically, business intelligence can help companies
transform their organization to be more agile, more competitive, and more
profitable. Successful Business Intelligence offers valuable guidance for

companies looking to embark upon their first BI project as well as those
hoping to maximize their current deployments." --John Schwarz,
CEO, Business Objects
"A thoughtful, clearly written, and carefully researched examination of
all facets of business intelligence that your organization needs to know
to run its business more intelligently and exploit information to its
fullest extent." --Wayne Eckerson, Director, TDWI Research
"Using real-world examples, Cindi Howson shows you how to use
business intelligence to improve the performance, and the quality, of your
company." --Bill Baker, Distinguished Engineer & GM, Business
Intelligence Applications, Microsoft Corporation
"This book outlines the key steps to make BI an integral part of your
company's culture and demonstrates how your company can use BI
as a competitive differentiator." --Robert VanHees, CFO, Corporate
Express
"Given the trend to expand the business analytics user base,
organizations are faced with a number of challenges that affect the
success rate of these projects. This insightful book provides practical
advice on improving that success rate." --Dan Vesset, Vice
President, Business Analytics Solution Research, IDC
 
Personal Review: Successful Business Intelligence: Secrets to
Making BI a Killer App by Cindi Howson
Cindi Howson has impressed me as a thoughtful and knowledgeable
professional who has contributed greatly to the BI field by living in the
trenches, digging into the details, and teaching others about her
experiences.
It is hard to find a comprehensive book on BI that is written without an
impenetrable cloud of technical concepts. Ten years ago, successful BI
depended on the expert execution of those technical concepts. However,
BI has matured, increasing the importance of nontechnical factors for
successful BI.
This book tracks this trend by clarifying the current success factors for
successful BI projects. Oldies and goodies are covered, such as the
necessity of executive support, data quality, and business-IT partnership.
However, the real contribution lies in highlighting some of the new success
factors, such as:

- Measuring Success: If you can not measure BI, you will not be
successful. The book suggests numerous ways to measuring your BI
effort.
- Role of Luck, Opportunity, Frustration and Threat: We hate to admit it, but
BI projects are often successful (or not) for reasons beyond our control or
even our imagination. Get over it! The book suggests ways of maximizing
your success by making you aware of this dynamic.
- Agile Development: Do not build BI systems in the old traditional way. We
all know this. But do we know a good alternative? The book outlines the
Agile Manifesto to deliver early and continuous versions, embrace
requirements changes, intensify person interactions, etc.
- Organizational Culture: Experienced BI professionals realize that some
company cultures are so messed up that there is no way to have a
successful BI project. Sad but true! This book suggests the essential
cultural characteristics based on the research of Jim Collins.
I highly recommend this book to both BI professionals who have some
experience and business executives who are new to BI. The old timers can
refocus and sync with the new trends. And, the executives can focus on
the real business issues, avoiding paralysis over technical details.
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