by Jeff Stout, Sr. Manager Business Intelligence, C Spire

There are many parts

Have you ever stepped back and evaluated your Business Intelligence (BI) landscape? I’m sure you have. BI programs are constantly evolving. There are new needs every day. Users come and go. Users priorities change, sometimes overnight. There are many pieces of a BI Program, regardless of its size. When evaluating the landscape from what perspective do you conduct the review? If you are like me, it is from a perspective of what is needed, what has changed, what is new, what needs to be retired, what is in the next release, and which products have come to market. Now a little background before we continue. I challenge my team to be creative and to look at problems in atypical ways. I challenge them to change their perspective and to change their assumptions to see where it leads. I decided to evaluate a BI program and compare it to LEGO bricks. Why LEGO? I played with LEGO bricks growing up. My kids played with LEGO. The LEGO sets available to my kids and on the market today are far beyond what I could have imaged as child. But LEGO is not just a toy. There are LEGO bricks for everything. There is a LEGO amusement park. There is a competitive TV show. There are companies that build massive sets in size and scale. There are companies that use LEGO as the centerpiece of adult training and education. LEGO even has robots. For the remainder of this article, I will review a dozen similar traits between a Business Intelligence program and LEGO.

Traits

1. There are many pieces

If you have assembled the International Space Station or the Millennium Falcon LEGO, you understand the meaning of "many pieces".  It took my son and my nephew weeks to build their respective models. Consider many of the parts of a BI Program. Table 1—Parts of a BI Program

2. A strong foundation and frame are required

Consider the strength of LEGO pieces and how much effort is needed to:

• Hold multiple pieces together that do not want to snap in place
• Separate two pieces mistakenly snapped together, particularly the small thin pieces.

It amazes me how much effort is required. A BI Program needs to be strong. This strength comes with the synergy of all its parts. The foundation is poured with the logical and physical models. The proper selection of a snowflake or star schema. The design of data cubes targeting the needs of a specific and identified group of users. Models must be scalable, adaptable, and properly manage the time dimension. Strength also comes in the hardware to provide the expected processing and response times to process batch and ad-hoc requests that meet the expectations. Therefore, it is important to follow the SAP sizing guides.

3. What can be built can be torn down

With LEGO, what can be built is only limited by one's creativity and the number of pieces available. It is common to reach a point in construction and realize a mistake has been made. I have done this a few times with LEGO kits. The price to be paid can be small to large, leading to a complete re-do. In a BI Program, instead of a set of instructions with step-by-step guidance, there are business requirements, system requirements, context models, process models, events, etc. The number of people can vary widely. Mistakes have been made and mistakes will continue to be made. The further you are from the starting block, the greater the cost to correct mistakes. The good news is corrections can be made and learnings can lead to better methodologies and processes. Being in the position of failure, small or large, is not a fun place be but good can come of it.

4. There will be pain

Have you ever stepped on a LEGO piece with your bare foot or tried to separate two thin strips that slide under your fingernail.? The pain is immense. It makes me cringe recalling the memory. Have you ever considered the pain associated with running a BI Program? Have you ever considered the types of pain- acute, chronic, systemic? Acute pain. Acute pain comes quickly at any hour of the day. The phone call in the middle of the night, reports and publications published with no data, or a system that is up and running but not accessible. And let's not forget when a user's expectations are not met because of the user's own assumptions or behaviors. What about the live demos where something did not work at the time of the demo but did when you tested it minutes prior? And let’s not forget about system upgrades. Chronic pain. Chronic pain is there every day. Little to nothing can be done to mitigate the pain. You can only live with it. Users do not like to hear when the data requested is not available or that a development ticket will need to be entered to have the operational systems create and persist the requested data in some future, undetermined release. Chronic pain can be caused by two or more datasets that cannot be combined due to no relationships, requiring coding changes in the operational systems or by a detractor who wants to use the newest product. And let's not forget the lobbying, the appeals, the budget requests, and navigating office politics. Systemic pain. The most compelling example of systemic pain is the lack of trust in the data and or system. This can be short-lived or long-term. It can also lead to drastic, whole, and fundamental changes, often at great expense.

5. Creativity

Creativity is defined as the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc. LEGO allows people of all ages to develop and expand their creativity. There are studies that recognize how LEGO enables a person, of any age, to express creativity, expand their creativity, and encourage brain development. The possibilities are limitless when a child, teenager, or adult takes a container of LEGO pieces to build the vision that is in their mind. In the life of a BI Program, creativity is a necessary requirement for its the long-term viability. Creativity is a seed of innovation. It is important that the BI team and the user community can be creative when searching for a solution or looking for new opportunity. So how does one promote creativity with the team or community? Ways to promote creativity:

• Freedom to ask questions
• Encourage zero-based thinking
  • If I were not doing what I am doing now, knowing what I now know, what would I do now?
• Freedom to change mind
• Freedom to admit when wrong
• Encourage continual learning
• Promote goal setting
• Be more concerned for what is right than being right

6. Vision

LEGO bricks must be arranged and stacked to create anything. A vision provides a framework and guide to know what to build. Without a vision, you’re only stacking blocks. In a BI Program consider these questions:  In a perfect world…

• …what does your BI environment look like?
• …how do the users engage the program?
• …where do users access the system?
• …how do users visualize data?
• …how accessible is data?
• …what data is accessible?

7. Cooperation

Cooperation with LEGO is all about playing together. LEGO can help teach children and adults cooperation through play. In a BI Program, cooperation is needed in the form of sponsorship and endorsement from the C-Suite / SVP / VP. This is critical because it is through this relationship that funding is secured for the next budget season and where requests for additional equipment or software are ultimately presented. This relationship also helps to establish the base value of the BI Program. Cooperation is needed from IT teams. Their help will be needed to investigate data issues, understand how business rules were translated into code, and understand dependencies between processes. Cooperation is needed from the business owners to work through how best to support their operations. And let's not forget that cooperation from the user community can help facilitate additional investment.

8. Community

Have you heard of Adult Fans of LEGO? Have you heard of a “LUG”- a LEGO User Group? There are thousands of people active in the LEGO community. The digital community is just as large with blogs, social media, websites, etc. Within our BI Program, we are engaged In multiple communities. The most important community is the user community we serve. Everything we do is for the benefit of our user community.  There are many other communities but our focus will be on user communities and their members. Have you ever considered the diversity within your user community? First, it is everyone that engages the BI Program, including all users and all consumers of BI Program content. There are promotors and detractors, data analysts, financial analysts, decision makers, vendors, customers, DBAs, developers, report writers, etc. Supporting such a diverse community is challenging. Here are five activities that can help address those challenges.

1. Nurturing
2. Educational opportunities
3. Communicate expectations
4. Feedback sessions
5. Engaging the development pipeline

Nurturing

As a BI Manager, I want to put the people that are using the BI resources in a position to succeed. I want them to glean information from the data that helps them make the best decisions. Sometimes this means shepherding one person at a time. The combination of a BI resource and a very knowledgeable business owner is a power combination. I have found many who consider this method of support to be too expensive, too focused. However, when the investment pays off the return will be huge. Another method of nurturing is offering Office Hours where anyone can come and sit with a BI resource and work through a problem, determine how best to approach a problem, seek possible alternatives, figure out how to use the tools, etc. No appointment is necessary … just show up. Another method is Brown Bag sessions during lunch. This is an informal meeting to discuss a myriad of topics. I do want to point out that I have used these methods of nurturing from small family-owned businesses to large government institutions to global corporations. The investment always pays off.  One person can make a difference … then one more person, and so on.

Educational Opportunities

Offer classroom-based or online-learning opportunities when you need to train large groups. Formal training of self-service capabilities, using inhouse data, is very appealing to power users.

Communicate Expectations

In short, this is lobbying for the benefit of the BI Program and the user community. Communicating expectations is about informing others what the BI Program and or user community needs from them. Look for opportunities to influence project requirements, design, etc., to support, enable post-launch data analysis and reporting. Regarding the user community, it is important to expect a segment of the community to learn to become self-sufficient. This expectation can be communicated during formal training, one-on-ones, or "public service" announcements on the corporate social media platform. It can also be done during a support ticket request.

Feedback Sessions

Feedback sessions are an excellent opportunity to hear an unfiltered message. The key to a successful feedback session is keeping the group small, no more than eight people including you. Anything larger and small group dynamics will disappear. Other key points are:

1. Keep an open mind. If you think you cannot then get some neutral to facilitate the meeting
2. State the purpose of the session beforehand and again at the start of the meeting
3. Ask the questions
4. Listen

Engaging the development pipeline

Educate requirements analysts, engineers, modelers, and system designers about the importance of data, the importance of data attributes, and the importance of persisting data. This type of education will support the data warehouse, the BI Program, data analysts, data scientists, etc., working in the backend.

9. Negotiation

When there is more than one person working with LEGO bricks, it’s only a matter of time before more than one person will want the same block or will want to build something different. Negotiation is part of playing. Negotiation is also a part of working. Negotiation is part of managing a BI Program. Negotiations must be held with vendors, customers, project teams, and others. With any negotiation, be very clear about what you want. Focus on what is best for your company, your users, and your team. Let the opposition focus on what is important to them. Before going into a negotiation, do your homework to better understand your position and your opposition's position. Do not rush and do not take the opposition’s issues or behavior personally.

10. Communication

When working with LEGO as a team, each member must share their vision, goals, ideas, and questions. Open communication increases the opportunity for success. Within a BI Program, communication occurs on many levels. There is small group, large group, formal, and informal communication. The key message is good communication enhances the entire program from development to management. Effective and open communication will create a feeling of trust and belonging to the team.

11. Problem Solving

LEGO Serious Play (LSP) is a facilitated thinking, communication and problem-solving technique that can be used within individuals, teams, and organizations. LSP is about solving complex issues by building models using LEGO. There are four basic types of problems: simple, complicated, complex, and chaotic. A BI Program must manage each type. Each type has its own weight, lifespan, and impact. It is the ability to focus and work the problem that makes the difference.

12. Completion. It is time to celebrate.

When construction is over, the project is finished. It is time to celebrate. My son would bring his finished product out for everyone to see. Then he would place his creation in a very prominent location. Within a BI Program, celebrate the wins….big and small. It is important to take time to celebrate the accomplishment, acknowledge the contributors, recall the struggles and failures and how they were overcome, and share the stories of how the project made it to completion.

Wrap Up

In a fun and unique way, we have reviewed how LEGO and a BI Program share several traits. LEGO bricks  have evolved far beyond a childhood toy.  Business Intelligence Programs have also evolved, offering more capabilities from simple reporting to AI and ML. They are all pieces that build BI Program. Therefore, I offer a simple framework for managing a BI Program successfully:

• Take care of normal operations
• Build strong relationships within your communities
• Try new things, test new ideas
• Look for quick wins
• Sometimes you have to GO BIG!!!
• Look to benefit one person, then one more person, then one more person ... continue

  The C Spire Business Intelligence Foundation is: Table 2—C Spire Business Intelligence Foundation