In this month’s column, I will again focus on the organization as one of the X factors which influence business intelligence (BI) quality. One of the characteristics of the organization which may influence BI quality is the level of integration of BI into operations and management. In order to use this integration characteristic as a metric in a program to improve BI quality, it is necessary to describe exactly what is meant by integration and to define a rating scale for assessing effectiveness. Basically, we must measure the extent (i.e., level of integration) to which BI is available and integrated into the normal business of the organization.
The Attributes
The attributes are the unique descriptors that illustrate what we mean by the term, integration. In other words, how do we describe how BI is integrated into the organization?
Availability of the Business Information
Is the business information library and BI product base available to everyone in the organization? Can we access and view all the available BI information from any workstation? Can we access the full range of BI functionality, such as reports, query and analytical programs? Any limitations should be security related only.
Analytical Applications, Online Help and Other Support
Are the BI products in the form of analytical applications? Is there online help to walk users through business processes, functions and information gathering? A question for the audit team here concerns the extent to which the BI product conforms to the patterns of the business operations?
Common Business Language
Is a business language library of common business terms available to all? This should include, for example, common terms, alias names, abbreviations, locations and availability of data and reports. There should also be a closed loop for update of terms by anyone in the organization. This common repository should be available to people and systems across the organization. There should also be interfaces with automatic updates from BI and other systems.
A Six Sigma BI Initiative
Is there a BI improvement program? If so, how well integrated into the organization are the elements of the initiative?
The Pervasive Use and Incorporation of BI Goals and Applications
BI should be used to change and optimize the operations of the organization. BI should not merely be used by the current operations, as is. There are many ways that the current operations can be made better by the incorporation of BI. Some of the other questions to ask here are: Are the BI efforts limited to departmental use? Does management use BI to drive organization goals? Is the BI cross organizational and an integrating factor for operations?
Measuring the Integration Characteristic
An organization needs to be able to describe how it will judge the effectiveness of the identified attribute. That is, if the availability of business information is to be rated at a level 5, or excellent, what does that mean? We will use those attributes and effectiveness ratings in developing an overall rating for the organization as an impacting X factor for BI quality. (See last month’s column for a description and definition of the factors.) For each attribute, we will define the levels of effectiveness. Level 1 is the least effective and level 5 represents the most effective. The rating scales are used in the Six Sigma BI Continuing Improvement Model (BI-CIM) to assess the effectiveness of the organization in the integration of BI. The results of the assessment are used to develop an action response plan for improving BI quality. The rating scales are defined below.
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