INTRODUCTION

• Getting the most out of your roadmap

• Selecting the degree of centralization
• Getting a laser-focused plan
• Analyzing your solution’s degree of coupling

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 WHAT A ROADMAP IS (AND ISN’T)

 Statement of overall business problem(s) and the specific

scope of the solution.
 Business perspective of the solution — for example, what
information needs your system will meet that it wasn’t meeting
before.
 Initial financial analysis, including ROI projections.
 Current condition of the organization’s information
infrastructure—including a discussion of where all the relevant
data is being housed and what condition it’s in.
 High-level review of hardware requirements, emphasizing any
new platforms you may need to implement.
 Discussion of existing and new software that will be utilized for
the BI solution.
 General make-up of project team and division of
responsibilities.
 A section on risks, constraints, and assumptions that lays out
where things can go wrong, as well as the known limits of the
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BI implementation.
A COUPLE QUESTION

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HOW TO CHOOSE

Organizational culture
• Autocratic
• Entrepreneurial
Organizational Structure

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BI ARCHITECTURE ALTERNATIVES
 How and where will the data be maintained?
 What will the integration schedule be?
 What tools will sit on which desktops — throughout
the organization?

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ARCHITECTURE EVALUATION

Hardware

Data Management

End User Tools

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OTHER SOLUTION ELEMENTS
 Operating systems
 Network protocols
 Server hardware
 Primary database vendor
 Data Warehouse and Extract, Transform, and Load
(ETL) processes
 The kinds of front-end BI tools you absolutely must
have
 The kinds of front-end BI tools that would be nice
to have

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QUESTION ASKED DURING PLANNING PHASE
 Which solution components work well together?
And which don’t?
 What infrastructure is currently in place and does it
have spare capacity?
 Does the company have existing relationships with
some of the target vendors?

THE SHORT LIST

 The goal is to produce a short list of architecture
alternatives that satisfy all of your bare minimum
requirements, and hopefully supply some nice-to-
have features as well.
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EXAMINING COSTS FOR EACH ALTERNATIVE

Keep your eyes for

expenses such as

Hardware Service and

Software Training and
acquisition maintenance
License support cost
cost cost

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 LOOKING AT TECHNOLOGICAL RISK
Some examples of risk associated with IT implementation are

Software has unknown bugs that

pupate and hatch at inopportune times.

Software doesn’t perform as promised

by the vendor

Products don’t work together as well as

projected.

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MAKING YOUR DECISION

Verify Your
Information

Revisit
your
criteria

Get a new
Perspectiv
e

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DEVELOPING A PHASED, INCREMENTAL
BI ROADMAP

Least
Highest Risky
Value

Easy to
deliver

Deciding Where to Start

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 DEVELOPING A PHASED, INCREMENTAL
BI ROADMAP

• Prepare a score card with key variables

Keeping • Rate them in order to decide your priorities
Score

• Move ahead according to previously made decision

Deciding • Review and refine the deliverables from the previous
What stage
Comes
Next
• Cost Overflow
Planning • Technological Risk
For • High Human resource turnover
Contingen • Loss of project sponsor
cies
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 DEVELOPING A PHASED, INCREMENTAL
BI ROADMAP

• Tiny changes in your scheme could impact

your plan.
Dealing with
• Insignificant updates can have big impact
moving targets on your project.

• A BI system is a constantly evolving

organism
Leaving time
for periodic • You need to updated or in easier term tune
up the system from time to time.
“architectural
tune-ups”

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