Business Intelligence For Dummies®

Chapter 11. Building a Solid BI Architecture and Roadmap

Good news! The Chief Operations Officer has accepted your BI strategy recommendations, and the Chief Financial Officer is prepared to fund the project.

Bad news: Now you actually have to figure out how you're going to make it happen.

Right up to this point, a lot of the focus has been on theoretical issues—defining tools and technologies, and assessing how one piece fits together with another piece. But now it's time to put that knowledge into action and begin to build the project roadmap.

As with any map that helps you on a journey, your BI roadmap is just a general guide to help you get from point A to point B. Defining those two points is the whole point of the content in the first half of this book. Now you have to find the best route between them. Plan well; the road may get rough.

Tip

Notice that we're looking for the best route between where you are now and where you want to be, not simply the fastest or the cheapest route. As is the case with any IT project, the "impossible triangle" (Figure 11-1) is in effect for BI implementations. The concept is simple: You may strive to create a project that's cheap, good, and fast, but you can't have them all. For example, if you want an inexpensive system that works well, you'll have to sacrifice time. On the other hand, if you're looking to install something immediately on a limited budget, it's not going to be very good.

Figure 11-1. The well known Impossible Triangle of IT projects. ...