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What's the #1 reason why business intelligence projects fail?
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11 Answers
There's more to it than that. Including a lack of requirements (which could either be seen as vision and strategy, but I think is more concrete: actual requirements). I think a lack of definition in HOW to measure success, using concrete measurable and well defined goals. If you can't measure it, then it is an intangible perception... intangible perceptions are EASY to miss.
I also believe that there is a fair amount of sticker shock when a division/management FIRST get in to Business Intelligence. It is NOT CHEAP to build it properly.
Finally, at the heart of many of the "failures" that I've personally seen (and this depends on your definition of failure) which wasn't specified here... There is a serious flaw in the architecture that is chosen for the data model. These flaws in design lead to larger and larger re-design every time the business wants a change. Eventually the business claims: BI costs too much, or BI takes too long...
Hence their excessive use of outsourcing, or Access Databases, or Excel Spreadsheets to circumvent the ailing BI system.
THIS is the number one reason that I've seen, that causes BI systems to be "shut-down" and re-started.
Hope this helps,
Dan Linstedt
http://danLinstedt.com
There is a better way to architect your data warehouse, a foundational method that will STOP this cycle of high cost and late delivery... You can find out more about it on my web site.
People -- the wrong project manager, poor support from senior management, overly optimistic about project, lack of skills, inexperience with the technology.
Another challenge I've found frequently is a BI system trying to be everything to everyone. Instead of realizing that different user groups have different data needs (and in some cases different data dictionaries) we're often banging square pegs into round holes and hoping we don't lose anything important.
When a business and business needs grow/change/shift focus we need to address those changing needs in our BI systems instead of forcing existing data to "best fit" uses.
Lack of vision and strategy is most important reason for BI project failure
@Daniel,
Yes, I totally agree. I missed that very obvious one. People need to be a part of WANTING it to succeed, and willing to invest the right amount of energy and time to get it done.
Most BI projects are normally implemented with a check-list. 1-2-3-4-5 and you go on ticking it and going along.
The most important is PEOPLE. We have to carry people. When there is a change in the system there will be terrific resistance and objection(s) and maybe a minor amount of sabotage. All these have to be catered for. People stakeholders have to be brought around and made to understand that it is their system and NOT that if IT. This is a herculean task, This has already been highlighted by Danel Power and Dan Linstedt,
In addition to lack of requirements and people, one of the things that I've been coming across is lack of scope - organizations trying to do everything without a proper understanding of what they are trying to achieve and what data infrastructure is truly required as a backbone for analytics and other BI applications.
Besides concrete requirements and pre-defined scope of the project, one of the deciding factors in the success of BI projects is collaboration of stakeholders (users, business analysts, executives, development team).
Without this collaboration, no BI project can meet the real purpose of the effort. Either the product does not meet requirements and cover the defined scope or the information that it delivers is not actionable.
After writing almost 1000 blog posts on IT failures for ZDNet (here's a link: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/projectfailures) I strongly believe that mechanistic formulas, while useful, are simply not sufficient to determine project success.
Sure, we need proper buy-in, careful requirements management, and all the rest that traditional project management teaches. However, there is still a piece missing: every organization must find a way to capture accurate information about stakeholder expectations as the project progresses.
Consider this: statistics tell us that 30-70 percent of project fail in some important way, despite metrics, measurements, plans, and so on. Why these staggering numbers?
During a project, various stakeholder groups (IT, lines of business, external vendors, etc) each have a different view of the goals, details of process, schedule, requirements, budget, and resources. These views translate into a difference of perspective and create different expectations about both process and outcome. In the end, perceptions diverge and we see alignment mismatches among the various stakeholder groups.
Other commenters here correctly noted these are people issues. While that is definitely the case, we should drill down more precisely to recognize that expectation management, based on accurate feedback and data, is the best way to ensure project success.
Moral of the story: pay close attention to traditional project management and methodology, but institutionalize gathering feedback from stakeholders through the entire project lifecycle. It ends up being a cultural issue, which many organizations do find difficult to address. Nonetheless, without a systematic method for gathering this feedback, the likelihood of project failure is high.
I think one reason , additional to all other expressed above, is the lack of business knowlodge of some consultants. Basics are in my opinion
Industry KPI's, Benchmarking, Standard KPI's in SCM as well in Finance, HR as extension.
I would second Sally. All successful BI solutions are customized and industry-specific.
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