What is the number 1 reason why business intelligence projects fail?

BI fails for several reasons, including:

- The criteria of useful data was not defined well enough;
- The systems gather what appears to be relevant but not detailed enough data
- Incorrect assumptions are made based on incomplete/faulty data
- Even if the data is somewhat useful, there is an inability to act upon it in a timely manner.
- Enough time passes even during the data gathering phase that other "fires" pop up and get priority over the original problem.

Jeff,

I would suggest that BI projects which fail do so for the same reasons that other complex business/IT projects fail:

-- Unclear project ownership
-- Poorly defined business case
-- Insufficient support from senior management to execute the project
-- Poor resource allocation
-- Interdepartmental politics
-- Unclear communication (can happen at multiple levels)

The more complex the project, the more disciplined that each stakeholder needs to be in managing his or her part of the project in a way that benefits the whole, and not just that stakeholder's part.

-ASB: http://xeesm.com/AndrewBaker

All very good answers - and coming from practical experience as one can easily see.
Nevertheless, some additional success factors have to be considered as extremely critical - and make the difference and special challenge of BI projects versus other projects where IT and Business have to team up:
- data quality (as a common responsibility)
- the need to align and standardize definitions is vital - and not necessary for many other projects
- the fact that BI doesn't always seem to be that urgent and critical (if you can't send your goods or your invoice you will identify "failure" immediately, if some KPI's are delayed ...)
- cross functional complexity (not only IT and biz have to be a team, but also functions which do not align otherwise have to agree and cross functional governance is not often foreseen)
And then there my most important learning: although you always need projects to set up BI capabilities, the real success of BI does not come from projects, but from running, living, and continuously improving BI. If you expect BI being "a success" after you have finished an implementation project, you will experience "failure". If you understand the responsibility you take with taking over BI capabilities from a project team into your operating responsibility, you will make the BI initiative a success over time.

Every answer above can be boiled down to a single statement: BI projects fail for the same reason most other IT projects fail, namely, the lack of a well-defined Business Analysis function.

A skilled Business Analyst is essential to identifying all key and non-key stakeholders; exploring the problem/opportunity from the perspective of each stakeholder individually and of all stakeholders as an integrated whole; accurately eliciting, analyzing and documenting the requirements for a successful solution; coordinating the business and technical domains for solution design and development; and participating with the QA/QC domain to ensure quality in development and implementation.

As a Business Analyst I see management consistently undervaluing this most valuable profession. Few Business Analysts are regarded as much more than "requirements gatherers," and most Business Analysts are relegated to a project functionary role, that is, merely another member of a project team. Few managers have yet grasped the enormous potential of building a robust Business Analyst practice that is business-dedicated rather than project-oriented, embedded in the business for the purpose of building depth of business knowledge that both resolves business problems and recognizes business opportunities, thereby contributing to building a strategic advantage to the enterprise and tactical advantages to the business domains within the enterprise.

Until this perspective deficit is overcome, BI and other IT projects will continue to either fail outright or achieve only marginal success.

This is not an easy answer since it is so multifaceted. I will lump reasons into one. The predominant reason for BI projects failing is a lack of defining what problem is to be solved by building a BI system and making decisions off the results. In other words what is to be accomplished. This problem definition sets in play the rest of the process including what data is to be integrated, the quality of the data, normalization of the data, the architecture of the system and the reporting or analytic structure. Too often the problem is not defined well because IT and the Business side are not working close enough together. IT understands technology but not necessarily data analytics and using data to drive the business. It is getting better but using data to drive an organization is relatively new in many industries thus many on the business side do not understand how to ask the right questions, which data elements to use to get at the right answer. There is also who is the owner of the BI process that also has a bearing on the problem definition. While this is multi-faceted the real issue starts at the beginning: What do I want to accomplish? Unfortunately there is no good standard "cookie cutter approach".

1. Wrong diagnose
2. Unpersonalized solutions
3. Time to implement and getting profits from the solution

Thnaks for the opportunity.
Regards
ricardo andorinho

I agree with all the comments herein, succintly put, unless the tech & biz team put the strategy & tactical exeuction models together & co-own it, any BI project is heading SOUTH.

BI projects fail due mostly to lack of integration, KPI choices, enterprise readiness, and lack of "C" level support. Many BI products exist, many are part of the ERP system, others are stand alone that intregrate. The challenge is getting all players and their data to integrate. If your/any data are not part of the solution, they are part of the problem.

My opinion veers to the simple: BI Projects fail because nobody cares enough to have them succeed. My belief is that any initiative will succeed when the hearts and minds of all those involved in and affected by the work are invested in a positive outcome.

But, I fear that outside of a few, most workers are just not that invested in the well-being of the organization beyond its short term ability to provide the twice a month paycheck. Why should they be? The 24/7 news cycle reinforces the perception of the tenuous nature of employment: a world in which the employee is a disposable resource subject to the short term demands of the market and employer. Without a true, meaningful, long-term bond between the workforce and organization--real and perceived--fostering an acceptance of project failure is easy. Easy always wins out over hard.

Nice answers from every one.
My thinking is:
1.Improper definition of the KPI for the BI implementation.
2.Completeness and readiness (accuracy and integrity) of data for BI project.
3.Lack of project commitment and involvement from all the stakeholders towards the project goal.
4.Lack of expertise resource allocation to the project.

Like any project, failure is due to a lack of planning before hand. The pre-planning is the time to set goals and objectives and a clear plan to meet those goals.

Changing project objectives and poor planning will kill any project.

They often fail because no one does the work up front to figure out what is needed and to ensure that the software is up to the job. Instead, they simply whatever product has been advertising the most or getting the most press.

If you are willing to make the effort, the following white paper describes a process for choosing the right product for your company: http://www.focus.com/ugr/research/crm/how-pick-right-crm-helpdesk-bpm-vendor

no.1 reason, cheap "Quick and Dirty" solutions are considered as a way to deliver a poorly funded project. In these cases it’s better to step away and let the project board reevaluate the project goals and funding.

In my view, Following are the major reasons

- Lack of Ownership from the Business
- Poor Data Quality
- No Standardization of Business Rules for different KPIs
- Precious Time loss in development
- Inability of the solution to adapt to new changes
- Lack of ability of the end users to utilize the application

If you search "why business intelligence projects fail" in Google you will find an abundance of white papers and articles (mostly written by BI vendors themselves) giving their two cents' worth. One top reason on which they all seem to agree for a BI project's failure is the lack of up-front planning. That is to say, in order for a business intelligence project to succeed, the customer must compile your requirements ahead of time, coordinate with all the relevant parties (IT, business departments and executives) and plan the project in accordance to those requirements. Otherwise, the project is destined to fail.

But if you you ask me, the main problem with business intelligence is that marketers rock while most products suck. One day soon, someone you've never heard of will get it right.

Read more here: http://elasticube.blogspot.com/2010/08/catch-22-of-traditional-business.html

According to Gartner, about 80% of Business Intelligence implementations fail; while an Accenture survey of managers in Fortune 500 Companies found that 59% cannot find valuable information they need to do their jobs; 42% accidentally use the wrong information about once a week and 53% believe the information they receive is not valuable to them.

I think that the main reasons are:

1. Poor data quality. http://tinyurl.com/44w8t97

2. Difficult to use BI interface. http://tinyurl.com/3ke7re8

The result is an extremely low BI utilization rate. http://tinyurl.com/428xean

Regards, Bill

I think user involvement.

BI implementations fail because they are effectively "elective propositions". That is once deployed their use / uptake / adoption / return on investment / value to the business is at the discretion of all of the potential users of the system. Attempting to service the requirements of every constituency in a business requires compromise for some if not all. Every compromise reduces the chance that elective users will "elect" to use the system.

30 - 40 years ago IBM were promoting enterprise wide centralised systems. This meant compromise for everybody but the gains were vast.

Then DEC transformed the market by providing departmental rather than corporate systems, which meant less compromise for each department.

Then came the PC which then meant less compromise for the individual.

The number of informational requirements serviced by excel dwarfs those serviced by company wide BI projects.

I contend that BI projects continue to fail in astonishing numbers because they are too big and try to provide a single answer to many conflicting requirements.

Bob Epstein, founder of the relational database company Sybase once told me that If a development project was bigger than 3 months he wouldn't do it. He reasoned that developments longer than 3 months mean that by the time you are ready to deliver, the requirements will have changed. Business cycles have condensed considerably since then.

The BI industry continues to try to force company wide solutions on a market that would be better served by flexible point solutions and data marts or micro marts.

When the acknowledged failure rate is 80% it is time to stop blaming the customer or implementer and really question the proposition.

If it looks like a duck and it walks like a duck its probably a duck!

Best regards

Richard