Business Intelligence for Dummies by Scheps, Swain -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Title Contents Introduction

About This Book How to Use This Book How This Book Is Organized Icons Used in This Book Time to Get Down to Business . . . Intelligence

Part I : Introduction and Basics

Chapter 1: Understanding Business Intelligence

Limited Resources, Limitless Decisions Business Intelligence Defined: No CIA Experience Required The BI Value Proposition A Brief History of BI BI’s Split Personality: Business and Technology So, Are You BI Curious?

Chapter 2: Fitting BI with Other Technology Disciplines

Best Friends for Life: BI and Data Warehousing ERP and BI: Taking the Enterprise to Warp Speed Customer’s Always Right BI-BUY! E-Commerce Takes BI Online The Finance Function and BI

Chapter 3: Meeting the BI Challenge

What’s Your Problem? The BI Spectrum — Where Do You Want It? First Glance at Best (and Worst) Practices

Part II : Business Intelligence User Models

Chapter 4: Basic Reporting and Querying

Power to the People! Basic BI: Self-Service Reporting and Querying Data Access — BI’s Push- Pull Tug-of-War

Chapter 5: OLAP: Online Analytical Processing

OLAP in Context OLAP Application Functionality Multidimensional Analysis OLAP Architecture What OLAP Can Really Do Drill team: Working with Multidimensional Data OLAP versus OLTP Looking at Different OLAP Styles and Architecture

Chapter 6: Dashboards and Briefing Books

Dashboards’ Origins The Metric System Looking at BI Dashboards Briefing Books and Other Gadgetry

Chapter 7: Advanced / Emerging BI Technologies

Catching a Glimpse of Visualization Steering the Way with Guided Analysis Data Mining: Hype or Reality? Other Trends in BI

Part III : The BI Lifecycle

Chapter 8: The BI Big Picture

So Many Methodologies, So Little Time Customizing BI for Your Needs Implementing BI: Get ’er Done

Chapter 9: Human Factors in BI Implementations

Star Techie: Skills Profile of a Core BI Team Overruling Objections from the Court of User Opinion Major in Competence

Chapter 10: Taking a Closer Look at BI Strategy

The Big Picture Your Current BI Capabilities (or Lack Thereof) Exploring “Should-Be” BI Alternatives Deciding “Could-Be” Alternatives Making Your Choice

Chapter 11: Building a Solid BI Architecture and Roadmap

What a Roadmap Is (and Isn’t) Centralized Versus Decentralized Architecture BI Architecture Alternatives Developing a Phased, Incremental BI Roadmap

Part IV : Implementing BI

Chapter 12: Building the BI Project Plan

Planning the Plan Project Resources Project Tasks Risk Management and Mitigation Keeping Your BI Project Plan Up to Date Back to the Ol’ Drawing Board

Chapter 13: Collecting User Requirements

It’s Business, Not Technical Requirements-Gathering Techniques What, Exactly, Is a Requirement? Validating BI Requirements You’ve Collected Prioritizing Your BI Requirements Changing Requirements

Chapter 14: BI Design and Development

Successful BI Design with Users in Mind Best Practices for BI Design Getting Users On Board

Chapter 15: The Day After: Maintenance and Enhancement

BI = Constant Improvement Post-Implementation Evaluations Maintaining Your BI Environment Extending Your Capabilities The Olympic Approach

Part V : BI and Technology

Chapter 16: BI Target Databases: Data Warehouses, Marts, and Stores

Data Warehouses and BI Data Models Data Marts Operational Data Stores

Chapter 17: BI Products and Vendors

Overview of BI Software The BI Software Marketplace Major Software Companies in BI Pure-Play BI Vendors

Part VI : The Part of Tens

Chapter 18: Ten Keys to BI Success

Picking Good Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Adjusting the Recipe Coming to Terms with Complexity Thinking (and Working) Outside the Box Picking a Winning Team Doing Your Homework Remembrance of Things Past (Especially Mistakes) Considering Corporate Culture Completely Just Going Through a Phase Adopting a Bigwig

Chapter 19: Ten BI Risks (and How to Overcome Them)

Resistance Movement Moving Targets Tool Letdown Being a User Loser Mister Data Needs a Bath Dough a No-Go? Scope Creep Rigidity Environmental Crisis

Chapter 20: Ten Keys to Gathering Good BI Requirements

All the Right People The Vision Thing Connecting BI to the Business Themes Make Sure the Insights Are Within Sight Greatest Hits from Yesterday and Today Consequences of Going Without What’s the Big Idea? Going Straight to the Source Adjunct Benefits What’s First and Why

Chapter 21: Ten Secrets to a Successful BI Deployment

Start Early! Get What You Paid For Only Losers Ignore Users Name-Dropping Testing 1-2-3 . . . 4-5-6 . . . and So On Go to Battle from a War Room Project Management Management Deal with Any Foot-dragging Immediately! Prove That Concept! The Devil Is in the Details We’ve Got a Live One

Chapter 22: Ten Secrets to a Healthy BI Environment

Data TLC Hitting Budget Targets Hitting Schedule Targets Rinse and Repeat Rinse and Don’t Repeat Maintain Team Knowledge Remember What You Forgot the First Time Regular Updates Staying in Touch and in Tune Communicating Changes Stay on the Train Maintenance as a Process

Chapter 23: Ten Signs That Your BI Environment Is at Risk

The Spreadsheets Just Won’t Die Everybody Asks for Help Nobody Asks for Help Water-Cooler Grumbles About Usability Good-Old-Day Syndrome Usage Numbers Decline Over Time BI Tools Aren’t Part of Strategy Discussions Executive Sponsors Lose Enthusiasm Executive Sponsors Lose their Jobs Resistance to Upgrades and Expansion

: Further Reading

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