BI Business Requirements - A Framework For Business Analysts

Copyright DecisionPath Consulting 2011 — All Rights Reserved

BI Business RequirementsBI Business Requirements

A Framework for Business AnalystsA Framework for Business Analysts

Nancy Williams, VPDecisionPath Consulting

[email protected]

2Copyright DecisionPath Consulting 2011 — All Rights Reserved

In the Context of Business Processes

Equals Business Intelligence and Business Results $$$

Management Processes, e.g.

Planning, Budgeting, Controlling

Customer Processes, e.g.

Marketing, Sales, Customer Service

Operating Processes, e.g. Manufacturing, Order Fulfillment,

Billing

Business Measurement

& AnalysisBusiness

InformationBusiness Decisions

Business Actions

BI- What Are We Trying to Achieve?


Information Requirements- the new BI Paradigm

Traditional Information Requirements Approaches

Report layoutsList of Data ElementsQuery and reporting specificationsOriented around “what” is needed, with little business context“Build it and they will come”approach

Business Intelligence Requirements Approach

What business information do we need?For what business analyses?In support of which key business decisions?That impact what core business processes?To deliver how much business value?Via what changes to people, processes, and technology

Maturing Information Models


Create a BI Strategy- Define BI Opportunities

• Aligns BI needs with Business Drivers, Strategies, and Processes

• Identifies specific opportunities for using BI to improve business performance

• Articulates explicit “business case” for each opportunity

Create a BI Strategy

Create a BI Strategy

Identify Risks & Change

Imperatives

Identify Risks & Change

Imperatives

Develop BI Program &

Release Plans

Develop BI Program &

Release PlansExecute via

Best PracticesExecute via

Best PracticesLeverage BI

for Profit Improvement

Leverage BI for Profit

Improvement

What Do We Need to Do?


Identify Business Questions

Define/ RefineFacts &

QualifiersInput to Logical

Modeling

Map to Data Sources

Define Analytical

Areas

Document Terms and Definitions

Metrics

Reports

Interview Notes

Input to Release Planning

Analytic Needs,

Metrics, KPIs

Analytic Needs Matrix

Fact/ Qualifier Matrix

Inputs Requirements Activities Artifacts

Definition of Terms

Inputs to Next Phases

BI Business Requirements Process

Conduct Requirements Interviews, Facilitated Sessions


Understanding the Strategic Context- Business Drivers, Goals, and Strategies

• Private sector– SEC filings– Annual Report– Business and IT strategic

plans– Industry analyses– Trade association web sites– Documents that describe

current architecture and technical environment

– Existing business plans/justification documents for enterprise applications

– Research to determine business processes, business context and key business processes

– Balanced Scorecard(s)

• Public sector– Many of the same types of

documents noted for Private Sector

– Agency strategic plans– Agency mission and vision

statements– Current and next year

budgets– OMB documents– Relevant public policy

documentation

BI Requirements Preparation


Develop a “Hypothesis” and Prepare Participants

1. Establish Strategic Context and Understanding of Business Drivers, Goals, and Strategies

2. Determine current, “as-is” information capabilities

3. Develop a working hypothesis regarding new “to-be” BI capabilities that align with and support business goals and strategies

4. Notify participants about the purpose of interviews/facilitated sessions and how they can prepare

BI Requirements Preparation


Define Analytical Areas

1. Define themes or “areas for analysis”

Business Questions:

What are my sales by region?

What is the historical average amount paid by claim type?

What is our revenue at the product level?

How many customer service calls did I get yesterday?

2. Group questions into analytical areas

3. Define purpose/story for analytical area explaining BI impact opportunities

Analytical Areas:

Sales and Revenue Analysis:What are my sales by region?What is our revenue at the

product level?

Claims Analysis:What is the historical average

amount paid by claim type?

Customer Service Analysis:How many customer service

calls did I get yesterday?

Analytic Needs,Metric, KPIs

Analytic NeedsMatrix

4. Align analytic needs areas with business goals

Facilitated Sessions and Interviews-Making Connections- Business Alignment


Analytic Needs Glossary

Cross-Selling Analysis:

While a business goal exists to increase revenue through better leveraging cross-selling opportunities, information is currently not available to improve the management of current cross-selling efforts. Current cross-selling information is limited to counting cross-selling events. Cross-selling analysis will enable managers to analyze the effectiveness cross-selling pilot programs across the organization. It will enable managers to adjust messaging, and customer targets, based on the effectiveness of pilot programs. This type of information is critical to achieving increased cross-selling revenue targets.Questions:1.What is the actual vs. projected cross-selling events and associated revenue by pilot by location, by department, by time?2.Which pilots aimed at the same customer targets were the most and least effective based by demographic profile?

Customer Complaint Analysis:

While there is an established corporate goal to improve customer satisfaction ratings, there is currently no information to quantify or analyze complaints. Currently the only information available is the number of customer calls. It is unclear how many of these calls relate to different types of customer complaints. Customer complaint analysis will enable managers to quantify customer complaints over time and to understand why customers are complaining. Management can then take steps to resolve the underlying problems associated with customer dissatisfaction expressed through complaints.Questions:1.How many customer complaints were their by complaint type by time? 2.What products/services are associated with the most/least customer complaints? How has this changed over time?

Sample Artifact- Analytic Needs Glossary



Business GoalsAnalytic Needs

Cross-sellingAnalysis

CustomerSegmentation

CustomerComplaint Analysis

CustomerSatisfaction

Analysis1. Increase Revenue through

leveraging cross-selling opportunities.

2. Improve Customer Satisfaction by reducing customer complaint levels.

3. Continue to enroll new members by establishing new channels, marketing to new demographic groups.

continued list of goals

Sample Artifact- Analytic Needs Matrix


Loyalty-level

Airline-type

Period

Brand

Airport (start, destination, transfer)

Date

Qua

lifie

rs

Facts

A7A7A6A8, A9A7, A8, A9

A3A8, A9A7, A8, A9

A7, A8, A9

A3

A7A7A6A5A2, , A8

A2, A7A2A2, A8A2, A7, A8

A2, A4, A7, A8

A7A7A6A1, A2, A8, A9

A1, A2, A7, A8,

A9

A1, A2A1, A2, A8, A9

A1, A2, A7, A8,

A9

A1, A2, A7, A8,

A9

A6A5A1, A2A1, A2A1, A2A1, A2A1, A2A1, A2, A4

A1A1A1A1A1A1

New-

Exist

ing

Loya

lty-le

vel

Resp

onse

-type

Corre

spon

denc

e-co

sts

Resp

onse

-rate

s

Awar

d-cn

t

Aver

age-

num

ber-o

f-tic

kets

Aver

age-

num

ber-o

f-tri

ps

Tick

ets-

per-

rese

rvat

ion

Num

ber-o

f-re

serv

atio

ns

Reve

nue

Num

ber-o

f-leg

s

Num

ber-o

f-trip

s

Mem

ber-c

nt

Fact/Qualifier: From Questions to Data

Sample Artifact- Fact/Qualifier Matrix


Definition of Terms

Example: Define “customer” for a hotel chain

Possibilities include:1. A customer is a hotel customer2. A customer is someone who makes a reservation3. A customer is someone who has had at least one stay at a hotel4. A customer may be a business or individual who rents a hotel facility5. A customer is someone who signs up for the hotel loyalty program6. A customer may not make the reservation; is the person who made the

reservation the customer, or the person who stayed?

Candidate definition:“A customer is an individual, group, or business who has received one or more hotel

services, including hotel stays, facility rentals, and/or other additional hotel services, such as spa services. Hotel services may or may not have been paid for

by the customer. A customer does not have to complete a hotel stay to be considered a customer.”

Sample Artifact- Definition of Terms


Requirements Artifact SummaryWhat are the measurement and analytic (information) need areas of the business?

How do these information needs map to the business goals?

What specific questions need to be answered for each information need area?

What facts and qualifiers are needed to answer the business questions?

Business Requirements

Database

AnalyticNeeds,

Metrics, KPIs

Fact/QualifierMatrix

Analytic NeedsMatrix

Definition of Terms

What are the shared definitions for business specific terms and acronyms?

Trac

eabi

lity

BI Requirements Alignment and Traceability


High

High

High

Medium

Medium

Low

This is a business question. It needs to be 4 lines and should not

be readable.


be readable.


be readable.


be readable.


be readable.


be readable.

Reservations & Loyalty Member;

Quality – OK


Quality – OK


Quality – OK


Quality – OK


Quality – OK


Quality – OK

1 year prior to start of promotion, 2 periods after the end. Use current values for member addresses …






Revenue Lift, Capacity Filled

Lift, …


Lift, …

Program cost in dollars


Lift, …


Lift, …

Weekly

Weekly

Weekly

Weekly

Weekly

Weekly

This is a note

This is a note

Prio

rity

User

Gr

oup(

s)

Busin

ess

Goal(

s)

Busin

ess

Proc

ess

Busin

ess

Ques

tion

BI S

ucce

ss

Metri

cs

Hist

ory

Requ

irem

ents

Sour

cing

and

Data

Qua

lity

Issue

s

Tim

eRe

quire

men

ts

Note

s

Analy

tic N

eed

What are the measurable statistics (member count, trips, revenue, tickets, reservations) by airport,

What are the measurable statistics (member count, trips, revenue, tickets, reservations) by airport, 1 year prior to start of

promotion, 2 periods after the end. Use current values for

member addresses …

1 year prior to start of promotion, 2 periods

after the end. Use current values for

member addresses …

Reservations & Loyalty Member

tables; Data Quality – OK

Reservations & Loyalty Member

tables; Data Quality – OK

Loyalty Marketing

Keep loyal customers

Expand loyal customer

base

Manage on-going

promotion

Promotions Monitoring & Analysis

Info

Daily 3 Years

Additional BI Business Requirements


Analytic Needs, Metrics, KPIs


BusinessValue

Busin

ess

Requ

irem

ents

Data Source Analysis

Technical Architecture

Tech

nical

Requ

irem

ents

Implementation Risk

BI Opportunity

Map (Portfolio)

BI Program Plan

(Release Strategy)

From Requirements to BI Opportunities


Developing the BI Opportunity Portfolio

Plums

Why Do It?Easy Wins

High Risk / Reward

Risk HighLow

Bus

ines

s Im

pact

Low

High Revenue Management

Customer Service Anal.

Inventory Management

Category Management

Supply Chain Analysis

Plums

Why Do It?Easy Wins

High Risk / RewardPlumsPlums

Why Do It?Why Do It?Easy WinsEasy Wins

High Risk / Reward

High Risk / Reward

Risk HighLow Risk HighLow

Bus

ines

s Im

pact

Low

High

Bus

ines

s Im

pact

Low

High Revenue Management



Category Management


Revenue Management

Revenue Management





Category Management

Category Management



What specific BI project opportunities exist to deliver business value?


BI Opportunity Checklist

Opportunity Checklist:What business goals and strategies are in focus?As is definition:

What information is currently available to support these business goals and strategiesWhat business questions can’t be answered and why is this a problem?

To be definition:What type of BI capability (provide name) is needed?How will this BI capability address the business problem? What specific business questions need to be answered?

What business improvement opportunities can be realized through using this BI capability?How does this help achieve business goals and strategies?How will performance improvements be measured?

Opportunity n


Use Requirements to Implement

Gather Information Requirements

Definition of Terms

Analytic Needs, Metrics, KPIs


Fact:Qualifier Matrix

TRA

CEA

BIL

ITY

Ali g

nmen

t

From Questions to Data

Design Inputs

Logical Models

Prototype

Reports Design

Development

Transformation Rules

Design & Development

Business Information Requirements


Prototyping- From Opportunity to Design

Execs and Senior Management

Middle Management, Analysts, Power Users

Knowledge Workers, Casual Users

User Profiles

Business Process:Customer Service -

Order Fulfillment

Business Activity

Business Scenario

Business Decisions

Manage customer relationships

Offer promotions to retain these customers

Correct cause of lower fill rates (underestimated sales forecast, manufacturing problem, distribution center backlog)

Business Process:Customer Service -

Order Fulfillment

Business Activity

Business Scenario

Business Decisions

Manage customer relationships

Offer promotions to retain these customers

Correct cause of lower fill rates (underestimated sales forecast, manufacturing problem, distribution center backlog)

Explore the orders by product and location

Compare to target fill rate and explore year to date trends

Look at order fill rate by customer

This data use…

Identify common traits for lower order fill rates (similar products, shipping location, etc)

We are not meeting target fill rates for these customers and service levels have dropped

One set of customers are lower than the average

Leads to this information…

Explore the orders by product and location

Compare to target fill rate and explore year to date trends

Look at order fill rate by customer

This data use…

Identify common traits for lower order fill rates (similar products, shipping location, etc)

We are not meeting target fill rates for these customers and service levels have dropped

One set of customers are lower than the average

Leads to this information…

Usage Scenarios

Dashboards, Scorecards

OLAP, Ad-Hoc Query

Reports

Delivery Methods

Who will use the information?

How will they use the information?

How should the information be

delivered?


Questions and Discussion

Technology

BI Business Requirements - A Framework For Business Analysts