Business intelligence (BI) project management

A BI project turns scattered data into information that someone uses to decide: reports, dashboards and, behind them, a data model and the processes that feed it. It resembles a software project in the build, but has a trait of its own that makes it delicate: what comes out depends on data you do not control. A well-made dashboard on bad data is a dashboard nobody believes. Running it well takes a plan by phases, tracking of hours by piece of work and a very live register of risks and changes.

The phases of a BI project

PjMan comes with a "BI project" project template with six phases:

1. Requirements: which decisions the business wants to support, with which indicators and how often.
2. Data modelling: design the model that will answer those questions, with its sources and its definitions.
3. ETL: extract, transform and load the data from its sources.
4. Visualisation/Dashboards: build the reports and dashboards.
5. Validation: check with the business that the figures are correct and useful.
6. Production: go-live, automation and handover to users.

When you create the project you pick the template and its phases are copied into the project, with their code (F001, F002…). They are independent copies: you can rename them, reorder them, add others (one phase per business area, for example) or delete those you do not need, and each phase accepts sub-phases. If you later change the template, projects already created are left untouched. (Creating a project, Master data and catalogues)

What tends to go wrong

• Requirements are vague. "We want to see sales" defines no measure: net or gross sales? By which date? With or without returns?
• Data quality is discovered late. Problems at the source appear on loading and take the ETL phase's schedule with them.
• ETL is underestimated. It is usually the phase where hours deviate most, because every source brings its own surprises.
• The figures do not match those the business already knows, and the argument drags on through validation.
• Every meeting changes the scope. On seeing the first report, everyone thinks of another.
• Agreements get lost. An indicator definition agreed in a meeting is forgotten if it is not written down.

How PjMan helps

• Hours per phase, in plain sight. Each task carries its estimated hours, the team logs theirs and each phase shows logged against estimated hours. If the ETL runs away, the deviation shows from day one. (Time and expense tracking)
• Risks with a plan. A register with probability, impact and mitigation plan, ideal for the most typical things in a data project: "the source will not be ready in time", "the data has duplicates". (Risk register)
• Change requests. Each "could we add this indicator?" is recorded with its estimated effort and its decision, instead of being absorbed in silence. (Change requests)
• Minutes with follow-up tasks. Each agreement from a meeting (an indicator definition, a decision about a source) generates its task, with owner and due date, so it is not lost. (Meeting minutes)
• Data issues. An error in a load or a figure that does not add up is recorded as an issue, with severity, priority, assignees and hours. (Issues)
• Reports on the project itself. The project summary shows weighted progress and the hours deviation; the reports screen compares your projects and breaks down the phases. (Reports)
• Plan and work. The Gantt chart of the phases (read-only) and a Kanban board of the tasks, on the same data. (Kanban and Gantt)
• Each role, its own view. The PM runs the project, management sees the status read-only and each consultant sees their tasks.

A starting point, not a mould

The template is a reasonable proposal, not an obligation: in a small BI project the modelling and ETL phases may be one, and in a large one it pays to split the build into one phase per area (sales, finance, operations). With sub-phases per dashboard you can see the progress of each delivery. If you always work with the same pattern, create your template and use it in all your projects. The predefined template cannot be modified, but you can create your own from scratch.

Try it

Create your account, create a project with the "BI project" template and estimate the hours of the first tasks. Or explore the demo, which includes sample projects.