« Copy-rama...a data perspective | Main | The Integrated Marriage: Modeling and Profiling »
March 2, 2006
Don’t Shoot the Report Writer
It thought he had it!!!
Mike Garrett's March 2, 2006 publication of "Don't Shoot the Report Writer" grabbed my attention!
http://www.b-eye-network.com/newsletters/inmon/2458
I was expecting him to finally publish the truth! That all the hoopla about BI tools only made it harder on the report developers! And I guess he inferred it....but let me append!
Mike is right. The devil is in the details and the top folks do want the detail. The gap in the story is the level of effort to get you there.
There is a disconnect of expectations. The BI tool sales folks tell upper management how quickly you can create cubes and reports. They don't tell upper management how long it is going to take to educate your information users in order to develop the kind of reports and cubes that will transform the way they do their business.
So...the report developers walk in...are told to transform all of the old reports into the new tool (by the end of the week)...The users are not wowed....and then they hate the tool.
Is there a way around this issue? Sure is.
You have to have a strong BI reporting Development management team that supports a solid development process.
You have to educate the business users into thinking a different way about seeing their business .
And you have to get them to help show you when aggregations are useful, and when they just clunk up the operations.
When the process is done well...it is a beautiful experience. When it's not...they'll be shooting at your Report Writers!
Posted by DataGoddess at March 2, 2006 9:45 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.beyeblogs.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/66
Twitter 
LinkedIn 
YouTube