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How bad BI could dampen innovation

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We all know BI’s ostensible price tag: the software, the hardware and the peopleware. But a new essay by Paul Graham, author of Hackers and Painters, programmer and venture capitalist, suggests that poorly managed BI might have yet another cost: the cost of thwarting creativity and zeal.

In business, we try to control what we must. We watch, deliberate, reflect and predict. We’re often neurotic. With BI, we watch more closely than ever.

Graham talks about how these “checks”—such as procedures to verify a vendor’s solvency—inflate the cost of software. He writes that programmers are especially sensitive to checks, which can drive them out of their minds or out of the company.… Read the rest “How bad BI could dampen innovation”

Agile BI for a chilled economy

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It’s called “agile BI,” and it goes like this: forget the big meetings, forget the planning, forget the budgeting. Just get someone from IT and someone from business together and make a prototype in a week.

Dave Wells, an independent consultant after five and a half years as TDWI education director, reports that clients are asking for this. “Let’s just see what we can whip up in an hour or three,” he said. If the prototype doesn’t come up with the most useful answer, the two people on the team rework it until it does.

“People are no longer asking for the big heavy BI applications with a life span of five to ten years,” he said.… Read the rest “Agile BI for a chilled economy”