Virtual Prototyping: Bridging the Business/IT Gap
One of the many factors that contribute to the high costs and missed deadlines of BI projects is a lack of alignment between the business and information technology (IT). Prototyping is one way to bridge the gap between business and IT and regain control over BI projects.
- By Jeff Reagan
- June 20, 2008
Many companies that embark on business intelligence (BI) initiatives experience serious setbacks to project budgets and timelines. Recent research reveals that “efforts to eliminate time and cost overruns in business intelligence and data warehousing projects are mostly unsuccessful.” In fact, these issues are so common that 62 percent of those surveyed factor delays and cost overruns into the budgets for data warehouse projects.
One of the many factors that contribute to the high costs and missed deadlines of BI projects is a lack of alignment between the business and information technology (IT). Prototyping is one way to bridge the gap between business and IT and regain control over BI projects. Prototypes provide a means to validate business requirements, design decisions, and data quality issues before the final product or service is delivered. Prototypes can also be controversial: their associated time and cost are perceived to be prohibitive, and the risks may outweigh the prototype’s benefits.
In this article, we explore the use of a virtual prototyping warehouse (VPW), created using data federation technology, to achieve the same goals as a physical prototype but at a fraction of the cost and time.
This article originally appeared in the issue of TDWI.