Posted in muses on Sep 25th, 2008
In the 32 days since the end of TDWI’s San Diego conference, one phrase has come to my mind repeatedly: “The soft stuff is always the important stuff,” uttered by Wayne Eckerson, director of TDWI Research. He was summing up a panel discussion, but the insight applies so broadly he could have used it for [...]
Posted in managing on Mar 10th, 2008
The business people didn’t show up to the meeting. They’d been invited to come and talk with IT about the new BI project and in the same stroke help launch it.
This is one of the first stories I ever heard about BI. Though daddy of data modelers Steve Hoberman didn’t say what happened next, I can imagine: all the usual suspects in business were soon rounded up for a later attempt.
The usual suspects are almost always the ones with positional power, the ones with staffs and budgets. But an article in the current strategy+business magazine says that sometimes—such as when creating a politically risky new system—what matters most is trust. Yes, an old story, but for once there’s a prescription.