Data Warehouse(DW)/Business Intelligence(BI): 2013 Open Research
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This open research into Data Warehousing/Business Intelligence (DW/BI) was performed during December 2013 and January 2014 and there was 101 respondents. The survey was announced on the Ambysoft announcements list, my Twitter feed, and several LinkedIn discussion forums (Disciplined Agile Delivery, Considerate Enterprise Architecture Group, TDWI, and Agile Data Warehousing). |
The Survey Results
Some findings include:
- Figure 1 presents the perceived success rates for DW/BI teams. Respondents were asked to rate the success of the team in terms of the success criteria applicable for that team. A definition of success (e.g. on time, on budget, to spec) was not inflicted upon respondents as previous surveys have found that success criteria varies from team to team.
- The percentage of successful DW/BI teams is much lower than the average found in general for IT project teams by the 2013 IT Project Success Survey. The percentage of challenged teams is higher than what the other survey found although the number of failed teams a bit lower.
- Figure 2 depicts the average effectiveness of DW/BI teams for delivering in a timely manner, for maintaining good morale within the team, for stakeholder satisfaction, and for producing a quality product.
- Once again DW/BI teams seem to do worse than average IT teams on these factors (Note: The other survey did not explore the issue of team morale).
- Figure 2 depicts the challenges faced by DW/BI teams.
Figure 1. Perceived success rates for DW/BI Teams.
Figure 2. Effectiveness of DW/BI Teams.
Figure 3. Challenges faced by DW/BI Teams.
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What You May Do With This Information
You may use this data as you see fit, but may not sell it in whole or in part. You may publish summaries of the findings, but if you do so you must reference the survey accordingly (include the name and the URL to this page). Feel free to contact me with questions. Better yet, if you publish, please let me know so I can link to your work.
Discussion of the Results
- I’m disappointed in the response rate that I got. The survey was short, so that should not have been a problem (the longer the survey, the lower the response rate in general).
- My original goal was to compare the effectiveness of agile, iterative, lean, and traditional approaches to DW/BI projects. Unfortunately very few traditionalists responded to the survey, which is unfortunate because I suspect the majority of W/BI projects are done in a traditional manner, and a large percentage of those who did respond dropped out when they got to the page that explored the effectiveness of the team.
- Although not statistically valid, the data was leaning towards agile teams being significantly more effective than traditional teams. Perhaps another researcher will be willing to put the time in to gather sufficient data to explore this question at some point in the future.
- This survey suffers from the fundamental challenges faced by all surveys.
Links to Other Articles/Surveys
Why Share This Much Information?
I’m sharing the results, and in particular the source data, of my surveys for several reasons:
- Other people can do a much better job of analysis than I can. If they publish online, I am more than happy to include links to their articles/papers.
- Once I’ve published my column summarizing the data in DDJ, I really don’t have any reason not to share the information.
- Too many traditionalists out there like to use the “where’s the proof” question as an excuse not to adopt agile techniques. By
providing some evidence that a wide range of organizations seem to be adopting these techniques maybe we can get them to rethink things a bit. - I think that it’s a good thing to do and I invite others to do the same.