10 Components Of A Successful BI Strategy Plan

The definition of a BI strategy plan is crucial to implement a successful BI. Boris Evelson did a good list with the 10 components of a successful BI strategy plan in his Forrester's blog:

1 - First defining what BI is and what it is not. Is it just reporting, analytics and dashboards? Or does it involve ETL, DW, portal, MDM, etc as well?

2 - If former, you then need to define linkages, dependencies, overlaps and integration with all of the latter. If latter, it’s a whole different subject. You then really do need to read a few thick books.

3 - Ensure senior business executive commitment and top down mandate. If you cannot get that, do not proceed until you do. Two ways to “sell BI” to them (even though that’s not a good position to be in: Educate them on BI ROI, and show them how you compare to your competitors and peers within or across your industries, geographies and markets.

4 - Establish BI PMO, BICC, BI governance, etc.

5 - Documents the current state of your BI environment.

6 - Envision and propose a target state for the BI environment that includes identifying.
Requirements for all:
. styles of BI (reporting, ad-hoc querying, OLAP, dashboards, etc)
. people and roles: all stakeholders that will be affected
. business vs. IT roles
. decision types (strategic vs. operational)
. end user BI self service requirements
. agility, flexibility requirements
. process requirements
. BI on BI requirements

* Dependencies, constraints (standards, other projects, initiatives, etc)
* Architecture: Technical, Metadata, Data, Integration (with other apps, processes, portals, etc) architecture, Information delivery (desktop, portal, mobile, disconnected, etc)
* Operational, training, support requirements

7 - Based on the target state requirements, build vendor/technology shortlist, considering potential multiple vendor co-existence scenarios

8 - Identify gaps between the current state and the targets state

9 - Design a road map to close the gaps and achieve the target state with:
* Priorities and dependencies
* Strategic vs. Tactical steps (or a mix)
* Top down vs. bottom up design approaches (or a mix)
* Plans, such as: Change management, QA, Risk management, Scope management, Communications
Now that all the plans and details are in place, you can proceed with building a detailed BI business case.

10 - Select software vendor(s) and (if necessary) systems integrator.

The interest in BI, both in relation to use as the sophistication of applications has grown every year. However, to achieve good results, before the implementation of BI is necessary to define a BI strategy plan. The companies need to link the BI with corporate strategy, with the strategies defined by executives applied to BI efforts. It is also important to involve business managers and end users, so that the BI can be embraced by the entire organization.