BI Leadership Forum
Wayne Eckerson and Eric Colson
Live Webcast on Sept. 24, 2012
In a collegial, fast-paced culture where change is constant and speed is paramount. Managing data in such a hyper-paced environment requires creative, out-of-box thinking. To meet business needs, developers and analysts iterate quickly, fail fast, and coalesce their designs after the fact to deliver maximum value. “We keep things fluid and rely on good judgment rather than rules to get things done,” says Colson. Tune into this Webcast to discover how to empower your developers and analysts to build effective solutions at the speed of business.
Discussion Points:
Can one developer really build an entire BI application?
What is the role of specialists, if any?
How do you evolve your data warehouse models quickly?
What types of rules and principles guide your development activities?
What is the relationship of your statisticians to your BI developers?
Visit http://www.bileadership.com
1. One
on
One
with
Wayne
Eckerson
BI
Leadership
Webcast
Series
www.bileadership.com
Monday, September 24, 2012
2. Moving
Faster
Than
the
Speed
of
Business
Guest:
Eric
Colson
September
24,
2012
Monday, September 24, 2012
3. Wayne
Eckerson
• BI
Thought
Leader
• Founder,
BI
Leadership
Forum
• Director
of
Research,
TechTarget
• Former
director
of
educaLon
and
research
at
TDWI
www.bileadership.com 3
Monday, September 24, 2012
4. Ships
October,
2012
Pre-‐order
at:
www.technicspub.com
Use
code:
Analy@calLeaders25
to
receive
a
25%
discount
www.bileadership.com 4
Monday, September 24, 2012
5.
The
BI
Leadership
Forum
is
a
network
of
BI
and
AnalyLcal
Directors
who
meet
regularly
to
share
ideas
about
best
pracLces
in
business
intelligence
and
educate
the
larger
BI
community.
BI
Leadership
Forum
www.bileadership.com
TwiNer:
@bileadership
www.bileadership.com
Monday, September 24, 2012
6. Eric
Colson
• Former
VP
of
Data
Science
and
Engineering
at
NeHlix
and
manager
of
BI
at
Yahoo
• 18
years
of
experience
in
data
mining,
data
warehousing,
and
business
intelligence
• Master’s
degree
in
Informa@on
Systems;
Bachelor’s
degree
in
Economics
• Profiled
in
Wayne’s
upcoming
book
www.bileadership.com 6
Monday, September 24, 2012
7. What
are
the
challenges
in
delivering
data
soluLons
in
a
fast-‐moving
business?
• Lack
of
clear
requirements
• Constant
change
• Lack
of
sufficient
lead
Lme
www.bileadership.com 7
Monday, September 24, 2012
8. Why
doesn’t
the
tradiLonal
approach
to
BI
work
in
this
environment?
• In
a
fast-‐moving
business,
specializing
by
tech
func@on
is
not
op@mal
• Specializa@on
in
BI
can
lead
to:
– Longer
development
cycles
– Loss
of
context
– Unfulfilling
roles
www.bileadership.com 8
Monday, September 24, 2012
9. How
does
specializing
by
tech
funcLon
lead
to
longer
development
cycles?
Report
Requirements Data
ETL
Report
Architecture
Gathering Modeling Development Development
Development
www.bileadership.com 9
Monday, September 24, 2012
10. How
does
specializing
by
tech
funcLon
lead
to
longer
development
cycles?
Report
Requirements Data
ETL
Report
Architecture
Gathering Modeling Development Development
Development
Week
1 Week
2 Week
3 Week
4 Week
5 Week
6 Week
7 Week
8
Requirements
Modeling
ETL
Report
Arch
www.bileadership.com 9
Monday, September 24, 2012
11. How
does
specializaLon
lead
to
lack
of
context?
www.bileadership.com 10
Monday, September 24, 2012
12. How
does
specializaLon
lead
to
lack
of
context?
www.bileadership.com 10
Monday, September 24, 2012
13. How
does
specializaLon
lead
to
lack
of
context?
www.bileadership.com 10
Monday, September 24, 2012
14. How
does
specializaLon
lead
to
unfulfilling
roles?
The
division
of
labor
leads
to…
“mental
mu5la5on”
-‐-‐
Adam
Smith
www.bileadership.com 11
Monday, September 24, 2012
15. If
specializaLon
doesn’t
work,
what’s
the
soluLon?
1. Dedicate
resources
to
business
departments
2. Orient
roles
around
business
domain
–
not
technical
skills
3. Balance
the
cost
of
constant
cohesion
with
the
benefits
of
agility
www.bileadership.com 12
Monday, September 24, 2012
16. Dedicate
resources
to
business
departments
• Engagements
are
long-‐term
–
not
project-‐oriented
• Data
folks
sLll
report
into
the
central
leader
but
doNed-‐line
to
departments
• Embedded
seaLng
in
the
departments
• Fully
autonomous
teams
www.bileader.com 13
Monday, September 24, 2012
17. What’s
the
benefit
of
business-‐domain
oriented
roles?
Repor@ng
Database
ETL
www.bileadership.com 14
Monday, September 24, 2012
18. What’s
the
benefit
of
business-‐domain
oriented
roles?
Repor@ng
Database
ETL
www.bileadership.com 14
Monday, September 24, 2012
19. What’s
the
benefit
of
business-‐domain
oriented
roles?
Subj
Area
1
Repor@ng
Database
ETL
www.bileadership.com 14
Monday, September 24, 2012
20. What’s
the
benefit
of
business-‐domain
oriented
roles?
Subj
Area
1 Subj
Area
2 Subj
Area
3
Repor@ng Repor@ng Repor@ng
Database Database Database
ETL ETL ETL
www.bileadership.com 14
Monday, September 24, 2012
21. How
do
you
balance
cohesion
and
agility?
• Monoliths
move
slowly
• In
some
cases
it’s
beNer
to
sacrifice
cohesion
for
agility
in
the
short-‐term
• Embrace
“Eventually
Cohesive”
data
models
www.bileadership.com 15
Monday, September 24, 2012
22. Under
what
condiLons
does
this
model
work?
1. Time-‐to-‐delivery
is
criLcal
and
wait-‐Lme
is
materially
greater
than
the
actual
task
duraLon
2. Necessary
to
leverage
the
ideas
of
the
data
developers
3. Top
talent
4. Engaged
business
users
within
good
proximity
5. Perseverance
on
the
part
of
the
analyLc
leader
www.bileadership.com 16
Monday, September 24, 2012
23. QuesEons??
We’re
listening!
www.bileader.com 17
Monday, September 24, 2012
24. Key
Takeaways
• Division
of
labor
in
BI
can
lead
to
loss
of
context,
slower
development
cycles,
unfulfilling
roles
• Dedicate
resources
to
business
departments
• Specialize
by
business
domain
–
not
tech
funcLon
• More
diverse
roles
can
yield
beNer
and
faster
results
• InsisLng
on
constant
cohesion
can
be
too
costly
www.bileadership.com 18
Monday, September 24, 2012
25. Contact
informa@on:
Wayne
Eckerson
weckerson@bileadership.com
Eric
Colson
Eric.colson@yahoo.com
www.bileadership.com 19
Monday, September 24, 2012
26. Next
Episode:
One
on
One
October
15,
2012
with
Wayne
Eckerson
3
p.m.
Eastern
Darren
Taylor,
President
and
BI
Leadership
Webcast
Series
COO,
Cobalt
Talon
www.bileadership.com
Monday, September 24, 2012