Power BI

Conduct independent research: The working team performs research into the business context and existing BI solutions or initiatives.

To define an effective BI strategy, the working team must understand the business goals. By understanding the business goals, the working team has the right business context to describe why people use data and BI tools, and comprehension of their desired outcomes

You should identify the existing BI initiatives and solutions with respect to the business processes they support and objectives they address. These solutions help illustrate what business users do today to address their data needs, so that you can assess whether it's effective.

Taken together, research on the business context and existing BI initiatives and solutions describe the current state of BI adoption and implementation. The working team verifies this research in workshops when capturing stakeholder input.

This article uses the term workshops to describe interactive meetings with key stakeholders. The objective of the workshops is to gather input so you can accurately describe and understand the objectives and data needs.

The following diagram depicts the process to identify and inform the right key stakeholders about the BI strategy initiative.

For each functional area, identify two to three candidate key stakeholder representatives.

hen you initially request key stakeholder participation, ensure that you: Obtain approval from their manager, as appropriate. Explain the scope of the initiative, and its objectives, timelines, and deliverables. Describe specifically why they've been asked to participate and what the desired outcomes are. Outline the necessary time commitment and participation that you need from them. Communicate clearly and concisely.

key stakeholders who have sufficient knowledge and credibility to represent their business area.

Identifying the right stakeholders is essential in order to run successful workshops and gain an accurate understanding of the business areas in scope.

Often, top-down BI initiatives limit stakeholders to executives and decision makers. While these individuals have a significant role to play (to obtain sufficient executive buy-in and strategic alignment), they aren't necessarily the right stakeholders. In this scenario, you risk defining a strategy isolated from the reality experienced by business users. This misalignment can result in strategies and solutions that don't meet the needs of day-to-day users, and consequentially they aren't used.

The working team investigates strategically important BI solutions to understand how the organization currently addresses business data needs. Specifically, the working team identifies who the business users are, how they use the solutions. The working team also documents key data questions or problems that these solutions address, and also potential flaws, opportunities, and inefficiencies.

The working team identifies strategically important KPIs and master data. These KPIs and master data are critical to enabling the business to achieve their business objectives.

Agree on communication values: Encourage all working team members to engage with concise, clear, and consistent communication throughout the initiative.

Business goals. Business objectives to make progress towards their goals. Business processes and initiatives to achieve their objectives. Business data needs to support the processes and initiatives. BI tools and solutions that people use to address their business data needs. How people use the tools and solutions, and any challenges that prevent them from using the tools and solutions effectively.

To help identify priorities, the working team conducts two types of assessment: a data culture assessment and a technical assessment.