BI Blueprint: How to Map Your Project

Rebecca Gow

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Rebecca GowSolutions ArchitectProfessional ServicesRebecca.Gow@LogiAnalytics.com

ABOUT ME

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Matt Dwyer, VP Product Management

BLUEPRINT IN THE WILD:

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The Blueprint is a comprehensive product roadmap for your BI initiative.

Why do you need a map?

…if you don’t know where you’re going or how to get there...

You may not get there without one.

BLUEPRINT IN A NUTSHELL

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When you are:

Launching an enterprise-wide BI initiative

Introducing analytics into a current product offering

Rolling out the next phase of a BI project

Re-designing a current analytics offering

WHERE CAN I USE A BLUEPRINT?

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THE BLUEPRINT METHODOLOGY

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Talk to the right people

Your target audience, not just

your business stakeholdersFind out how they use

informationHow you ask

matters for the answers that define your

solutionConnect the dots

Steps 1 and 2 give you everything you

need for your roadmap

WHO NEEDS INFORMATION?Defining your audience and project support

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Your audience comes first ahead of all other stakeholders. If you don’t design for them, you risk building a product they won’t use.

To identify and prioritize your audience, ask:

Who needs this?

Why do they need it?

How urgent is the need?

WHO ARE THE RIGHT PEOPLE?

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Break your audience down to highlight user personas and help identify who you’ll need to interview.

Consider:

Distinct teams or groups of users – does this solution need to serve

departments in an org? Teams by shift on a production floor?

Unique roles – these often become your user personas by default

Types of use – are there “power users” in your audience accustomed to self-

service options? Administrators who control data inputs?

WHO ARE YOUR USER PERSONAS?

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Include anyone who may be impacted by your product – whether they’ll use it or they support the people who will.

Talk to:

Technical SMEs – IT, architects, DBAs, development operations, QA

Business SMEs – people with deep knowledge of an area of the business

that needs the solution

Project sponsors – not only official sponsors, but also people from whom

you’ll need resources to launch the product successfully

OTHER KEY STAKEHOLDERS

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Two to three days of interviews with your project sponsors, audience personas, technical SMEs and other stakeholders – in that order – usually yields what you need to compile a Blueprint.

Sample Agenda:

ALIGNING INTERVIEWS

Day 1 Session Participants9 – 11AM Project Overview Project owner & sponsors11AM – 5PM User Interviews 2 – 3 people from each user groupDay 29 – 11AM Technical Interviews IT, DevOps, technical SMEs3 – 4PM Initial Findings Project owner & sponsors

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HOW DO THEY USE DATA?Learning what BI means to your audience and how to provide it

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Keep questions broad & non-technical. Some starter questions:

1. Describe your role.

2. What’s an average hour / day / week on the job like for you?

3. Who do you interact with most often? What do they need from you?

4. What systems / reports / sources do you use?

5. What metrics do you need? How do you measure performance?

6. What are some challenges / frustrations in your job today?

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR USERS

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Getting good info out of your interviews is key to a clear Blueprint.

Three tips for a successful interview:

1. Keep an Open Mind – if you go in with an agenda, you’ll miss critical info

2. Ask Open-Ended Questions – this gets you the most information possible

3. Limit Your Interview Audience – you’ll typically get better results with a

smaller, focused group (2 – 3 representatives of the same persona or role)

than with everyone from the team in the room

INTERVIEW TECHNIQUE

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Once you’ve completed interviews, review your notes for:

What metrics & key insights each of your personas uses

Databases & systems they access today for data

What they are and aren’t allowed to access

What they like today – and may be worth keeping in the new solution

Frustrations & obstacles – slow performing reports? A specific insight they

need has to come from another team and takes weeks?

DIGGING UP THE GOLD

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COMPONENTS OF A LOGI BI SOLUTION

DATA UI

INTEGRATION

SECURITY

INFRASTRUCTURE

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REFINING YOUR SOLUTION: Architecture

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DW

DB1 DB(future)

ANALYTICS

PORTAL / PARENT

AUTH

Draw it up and socialize:

Data Sources

Application

Integrated Systems

Security Frameworks

Interactions

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REFINING YOUR SOLUTION: UI Mockups

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Keep It Simple –

concept, no detail

Start Your Design Here

– mockups serve as the

basis of your design

Iterate

Completing your Blueprint and plotting your route to a successful launch

CONNECTING THE DOTS

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What you need for your roadmap:

Key Problems / Needs – what’s driving the project?

Target Audience – who needs this and why?

Key Goals – what should the completed product have accomplished?

Key Functionality – what features “make” the solution?

Solution Design – what is your solution stack and architectural design?

Timeframe – when is this needed?

WHAT ARE THE DOTS?

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STRUCTURING YOUR PROJECT

Two common approaches to balance data access with application development:

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ANALYTICS

DATA TIER

ANALYTICS APPDATA TIER

Milestone 1 Milestone 2 More Time for Dev

Balanced Resourcing

Less Time for Dev

All Hands on Deck

Parallel Dev

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Key considerations for your project schedule: involve your users, allow for design iterations and start data validation early.

DEFINING YOUR SCHEDULE

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Staffing a BI project for success:

Data Development Team – data architect, developer, DBA for modeling data,

developing data stores, designing ETL and tuning for best performance

Data Validation – business SMEs, potentially your user representatives for

defining source data and validating numbers

UI / Design Team – especially for embedded products where seamless style

and UI is required, also for designing visualizations for global audiences

STAFFING YOUR PROJECT

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Common risks and how to mitigate them:X Nice Dashboard, No Data

Don’t let your app get ahead of your data – structure your project to ensure there’s always something to show and validate at each review

X User Count = 0

Involve your audience early and often, starting with the solution design and through frequent reviews during development

X User Count = The World Monitor and tune for best performance! Log enhancements and iterate using the

Blueprint method for future phases

BUMPS IN THE BI ROAD

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A completed Blueprint delivers:

Requirements Analysis – detailed analysis of the problems / needs driving

the project, the goals of the solution and its target audience

Solution – architecture and its components: data sources, security

considerations, integration points and conceptual user interface designs

Implementation Plan – delivery plan including milestones, development

schedule and resourcing

WHAT DO YOU GET?

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Matt Dwyer, VP Product Management

BLUEPRINT IN THE WILD:

ANY QUESTIONS?

Interested?Contact your sales rep for more information or to schedule a Blueprint: salesteam@logianalytics.com

Learn more with The Definitive Guide to Dashboard Design