From the Editor
- By James E. Powell
- December 11, 2006
When William Tell failed to bow before an emperor’s hat atop a pole, he was arrested. As punishment, he was threatened with execution of both him and his son unless he could shoot an apple off the boy’s head.
As BI practitioners, we, too, must stay focused on our target—in fact, on three targets. Senior Editor Hugh Watson points out the three fundamental purposes or objectives of data warehousing initiatives and explains that while we can be successful with a variety of targets, there are several important and interesting factors that determine DW success.
Barry Klawans argues that commercial software shouldn’t be your only focus. He explains the benefits of open-source business intelligence solutions, how they measure up against their competitors, and how to avoid the downsides to the open-source movement.
Our experts have a BI professional in their sights as our scenario explores how to generate management support for a comprehensive, in-house-written BI solution. Also in this issue, Kirby Lunger takes aim at performance management and quality frameworks, offering a guide for selecting the methodology that works best for specific kinds of dashboard and scorecard initiatives.
Tell had his priorities straight and valued the life of his son. Majid Abai explains the equally high value of data to an organization. He shows how to identify a paradigm shift for organizations regarding data, its importance, and its value, especially the significant savings a data-centric approach can generate. Likewise, Peter Graham dissects the four key barriers to leveraging data assets, while Tony Fisher looks at data monitoring.
Doug Barrett and Neil Barton explain the reasons a data warehouse project can be more costly, lengthier, and more risky than expected, all because organizations have applied traditional approaches and lifecycle methodologies to their projects. What makes for a successful DW project? The authors suggest a host of arrows you should have in your quiver.
Hitting the bull’s-eye are our nine TDWI Best Practices Award winners.
As always, we’re interested in your comments. Please send me your feedback: [email protected].
James E. Powell is the editorial director of the
Business Intelligence Journal.
[email protected]
This article originally appeared in the issue of TDWI.
About the Author
James E. Powell is the editorial director of the Business Intelligence Journal and BI This Week newsletter. You can contact him here.