Business Intelligence For Dummies®

Chapter 8. The BI Big Picture

If you're waiting for that chapter where we talk about the one-and-only BI methodology that will bring about world peace in addition to guaranteeing your project's success, you're in for a disappointment: Such a thing does not exist.

As anxious as you may be to get started, making careful first steps is one of the best things you can do for your project. You're faced with a thousand decisions early on—including selecting a scope for your initial implementation, which vendor(s) to choose, and how to staff your team.

But the consequences of rushing headlong into the project are too far-reaching and expensive to do anything but the best planning beforehand. In this chapter, we talk about just what kind of mousetrap you want to build, some of the key choices you have in front of you, and some tips on making good decisions in the early stages.

So Many Methodologies, So Little Time

There is no shortage of pathways to the end of your BI project, but there may be only a few that will truly lead you to BI nirvana. Because while they may look nice on paper, it's likely that only a few of these "secret recipes" will actually fit your project's particular needs.

So open up a magazine, crack a book, or fire up a Web page, and you'll likely come face to face with yet another methodology for installing a business-intelligence solution.

When you take on the challenge of selecting a BI methodology, you're evaluating not only what you can afford to do with the technology budget; ...