Business Analysis for Business Intelligence

4

Adapting BI to the Organization’s Configuration

INTRODUCTION

Henry Mintzberg (1989) spent a great deal of his academic research on the study of organizations and how they adapt (or don’t adapt!) to the environment. He described five consistent “Idealtyps” based on their coordinating mechanisms and the forces working within and around the organization. In reality, you will meet mixed varieties and combinations of up to three types. By designating the key part of the organization type, Mintzberg also gave us a hint of what a Business Intelligence (BI) infrastructure would look like depending on these configurations. I reuse a few of Mintzberg’s schemes with a strong caveat: read and reread his books and articles and check his findings ...