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June 30, 2008
Build, Buy or Both?
The great debate: Build or Buy?
For as long as long as I can remember most BI buyers have been torn between the idea of a quick "out of the box" pre-packaged BI application or the lure of a completely customized solution designed specifically to meet their needs and domain expertise.
After working for both, a software vendor and a custom software development firm, I firmly believe the answer is both. There is no doubt that pre-packaged BI applications provide value, and most can do so pretty quickly.
Of course, if you don't have the data ready or know what people need, even the best software won't answer your prayers. A lot of the background work, the research, the requirements gathering, you do to implement a pre-packaged solution can be re-used to extend the value of your investment with customized applications.
Customized applications have suffered a bad rap. Many take too long, are over-budget, and don't meet the expectation of the audience that has been waiting for this killer app. Why? Because after a long requirements gathering process a large document is produced that is too big, too complicated, and too boring to be effectively reviewed by anyone. This information is then sent to an internal development team or outside vendor for estimation. Things invariably change, questions arise, hidden requirements start to surface, and more time and money are spent to address a virtual moving target. The software is delivered late, and when it is delivered, people start noticing that some features are not implemented how they had envisioned and some critical features are not there at all.
Agile Development to the rescue!! With Web 2.0 and the right development team and methodology, you can create a custom application that delivers on the promise of competitive advantage. Agile teams have proven to produce software that does a better job of meeting business needs because it can adapt to changing requirements and produces working software every few weeks. Agile makes it easier to predict the time and effort necessary to implement particular features, providing greater transparency into the software development process. At any time the application can be evaluated to determine if it meeting expectations.
I am a new convert to Agile development but I must say the results I have seen so far have been stellar. Customized applications combined with pre-packaged BI tools offer the best of both worlds and the one-two punch for creating business breakthroughes and game changing results.
Share your build or buy stories. Which worked and why?
Posted by Eleanor Taylor at 2:45 PM | Comments (1)
June 13, 2008
BI Eye Candy - Visualization
I am absolutely convinced that information visualization will be BI's biggest future trend. Why? Because we are all too inundated with too much information, data and distraction that it is getting more and more difficult to separate the opportunities from the noise.
We all know that visually we can interpret information, understand relationships and identify patterns much faster, yet we still have yet to maximize the potential.
I think the biggest stumbling block is how information visualization is presented and designed. Few are trained to understand what is the representation to use based on the data presented. And many of us to get too tied up dressing up graphs instead of letting the data speak for itself.
I am a big fan and follower of Stephen Few. He has a great little quiz that I recommend you give a try:
http://www.perceptualedge.com/files/GraphDesignIQ.html
It provides a great illustration of some of our current problems.
We need to start listening to what the data is saying and pick the visualization that fits best. Not the other way around!!
Form follows function!!
I welcome your thoughts...
Eleanor
Eleanor Taylor is Marketing Director at Pathfinder . She can be reached at etaylor@pathf.com or by visiting www.pathf.com
Posted by Eleanor Taylor at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)
