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One on One with Wayne Eckerson
BI Leadership Webcast Series
Monday, September 24, 2012
Moving Faster Than the Speed of Business
Guest: Eric Colson
September 24, 2012
Monday, September 24, 2012
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Wayne Eckerson
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• BI Thought Leader • Founder, BI Leadership Forum• Director of Research, TechTarget
• Former director of educaLon and research at TDWI
Monday, September 24, 2012
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Ships October, 2012
Pre-‐order at: www.technicspub.com
Use code: Analy@calLeaders25to receive a 25% discount
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The BI Leadership Forum is a network of BI and AnalyLcal Directors who meet regularly to share ideas about best pracLces in business intelligence and educate the larger BI community.
www.bileadership.com TwiNer: @bileadership
BI Leadership Forum
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• Former VP of Data Science and Engineering at NeHlix and manager of BI at Yahoo
• 18 years of experience in data mining, data warehousing, and business intelligence
• Master’s degree in Informa@on Systems; Bachelor’s degree in Economics
• Profiled in Wayne’s upcoming book
Eric Colson
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• Lack of clear requirements• Constant change• Lack of sufficient lead Lme
What are the challenges in delivering data soluLons in a
fast-‐moving business?
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• In a fast-‐moving business, specializing by tech func@on is not op@mal
• Specializa@on in BI can lead to:– Longer development cycles
– Loss of context– Unfulfilling roles
Why doesn’t the tradiLonal approach to BI work in this
environment?
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How does specializing by tech funcLon lead to longer
development cycles?
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RequirementsGathering
Data Modeling
ETL Development
Report ArchitectureDevelopment
Report Development
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How does specializing by tech funcLon lead to longer
development cycles?
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RequirementsGathering
Data Modeling
ETL Development
Report ArchitectureDevelopment
Report Development
Week 1
Modeling
ETL
Report Arch
Requirements
Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8
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How does specializaLon lead to lack of context?
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How does specializaLon lead to lack of context?
Monday, September 24, 2012
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How does specializaLon lead to lack of context?
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The division of labor leads to… “mental mu5la5on”
-‐-‐ Adam Smith
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How does specializaLon lead to unfulfilling roles?
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1. Dedicate resources to business departments
2. Orient roles around business domain – not technical skills
3. Balance the cost of constant cohesion with the benefits of agility
If specializaLon doesn’t work, what’s the soluLon?
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Dedicate resources to business departments
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• Engagements are long-‐term – not project-‐oriented• Data folks sLll report into the central leader but doNed-‐line to departments• Embedded seaLng in the departments• Fully autonomous teams
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What’s the benefit of business-‐domain oriented
roles?
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ETL
Database
Repor@ng
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What’s the benefit of business-‐domain oriented
roles?
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ETL
Database
Repor@ng
Monday, September 24, 2012
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What’s the benefit of business-‐domain oriented
roles?
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ETL
Database
Repor@ng
Subj Area 1
Monday, September 24, 2012
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What’s the benefit of business-‐domain oriented
roles?
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ETL
Database
Repor@ng
Subj Area 1 Subj Area 2
ETL
Database
Repor@ng
Subj Area 3
ETL
Database
Repor@ng
Monday, September 24, 2012
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How do you balance cohesion and agility?
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• Monoliths move slowly• In some cases it’s beNer to sacrifice cohesion for agility in the short-‐term• Embrace “Eventually Cohesive” data models
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1. Time-‐to-‐delivery is criLcal and wait-‐Lme is materially greater than the actual task duraLon
2. Necessary to leverage the ideas of the data developers
3. Top talent4. Engaged business users within good proximity5. Perseverance on the part of the analyLc
leader
Under what condiLons does this model work?
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QuesEons??
We’re listening!
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• Division of labor in BI can lead to loss of context, slower development cycles, unfulfilling roles
• Dedicate resources to business departments• Specialize by business domain – not tech funcLon• More diverse roles can yield beNer and faster results
• InsisLng on constant cohesion can be too costly
Key Takeaways
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Wayne [email protected]
Eric [email protected]
Contact informa@on:
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One on One with Wayne Eckerson
BI Leadership Webcast Series
Next Episode:
October 15, 20123 p.m. Eastern
Darren Taylor, President and COO, Cobalt Talon
Monday, September 24, 2012