One of the things I struggle with is change management for business intelligence. One of the toughest things to explain to non-BI people, whether they are in QA/QC or general IT areas is that BI is not a transactional system or IT application, so traditional change management process doesn’t really fit the mold.  In some regards the pace of change in mature BI implementations can be a day or even a few hours for some aspects like reports or dashboards, were on the other hand your database schemas, aggregate tables and cubes change at a slower pace. The challenge comes from trying to fit one change management structure on to this processes that spin at different rates and responsive needs.

The first thing we should address is the name, because we are not managing change in a typical application development situation, we are managing extension or addition. Rarely do we “change” anything in a traditional sense. We are developing new ways of looking at the data and throwing out the outdated parts. We are creating new views of the data or incorporating additional data into our warehouses.

Secondly, I think it makes sense to break the deliverable from a BI project in to 6 pieces, because these pieces have different churn rates. From a high level those 6 pieces are Staging, Stars, Aggregates, Cubes, Semantic Layers and Reporting/Dashboards/Visualizations.

If you are familiar with the Gartner Pace Layer Applications Strategy, you will understand when I say that the Staging and Stars are “Systems of Record” and you wouldn’t want these things changing at a rapid pace because of the impacts that it could cause downstream. These systems should follow a rigid process for object promotion because of the potential implications. Your aggregates and cubes are more like a “System of Differentiation” where you will see more frequent changes than the staging and star schemas, so there needs to be more flexibility in how you manage object “promotion through your development, quality and production environments. Finally, the semantic layers and reports can be viewed as a “System of Innovation” where you are constantly experimenting with the data, developing new analytics and mining the data for new predictors and indicators for business performance. These items have the potential to change daily, and if you have followed a rigid process for the ”system of record” and painstakingly tested the code for validity and reliability then you should have the confidence that the reporting will be correct based on the requests and whims of the business users.

As an aside, you have to take your project management method into consideration. If you are working in an Agile fashion you obviously can’t work on a monthly promotion cycle because by the time your last minimal marketable feature moves in to production, you’ve completed the next sprint and you will always be playing catch up from a change management perspective. If you are still working in a “traditional waterfall” you have a bit more room to plan for those production moves.

Lastly, consider what the business truly needs and place your organization on the Business Intelligence Maturity Model before deciding what change management strategy is right. If you do not work for an analytic minded company, then your initial BI offerings aren’t going to be used as a system of innovation, you are going to be replacing reporting that exist from legacy systems and pushing towards the next level of maturity. As your BI program matures, you need to reassess you change management needs to fit the companies level of maturity and look at your business users current needs. These practices and procedures should be reassessed every 6 to 12 months depending on the speed of development within the BI program.

If you ride a motorcycle I am sure you have heard things like ”Ride like you are invisible” or ”Loud pipes save lives.” Now I personally don’t prescribe to that last piece of rider wisdom, and I follow the “loud colors saves lives” motto since light travels faster than sound. When I ride, especially in heavy traffic areas, I wear a bright white helmet and what is described as a “hi-viz” jacket. I’m sure you’ve seen them as they are either bright green or orange, similar to what DOT construction workers wear or what police officers wear when directing traffic.  When you ride, it’s important to stay visible because when no one notices you that’s when you can get hurt. Things like choice of clothing, lane positioning, following distance and even the headlight on your motorcycle all play a part is your ability to remain visible. I’ve never understood the logic of wearing black protective gear because all you do is blending with the road you are riding on, and no one can see you from a distance.

Staying visible in a business intelligence sense can be tricky, because sometimes the value that you are adding to the business in only realized by the people seeing that direct benefit. As a team, it is important to be evangelists for the work you do! I’ve seen some team put out a monthly news letter with articles written by the business users they have helped, including cost savings and the potential return on investment.

Have you ever hear a C-level executive say something like “This quarter’s performance is solely based on the decisions I was able to make thanks to the data that our business intelligence solution enabled me to analyze”?

Me neither.

So we have to be vigilant in presenting not only quality solutions to the business, but we also have to be our own PR machine so that the business knows how great we are for the business! Here are a few more ideas to help publicize yourself to the organization.

Schedule “Lunch and Learn” events and invite different areas of the business to learn about what you have done, be sure and provide lunch.

Conduct training on tools or the solution itself to key business members so they know how to best use what they have been given.

Create a team website, post regularly about what the team is doing, and what is on the BI horizon.

Write something in the corporate newsletter, direct them to your team’s website for more information.

If you’ve done some truly amazing things, you can do these things as well, because if you can be nationally recognized for the work you’ve done, the business will take notice as well.

Publish a white paper talking about your solution, or unique ways you used tools or technology to bring value to the business.

Submit your work to TDWI for the TDWI Best Practice Award.

Work with your tool vendor and become a case study.

Of you are extremely creative, you can go the SAP route and produce an awesome video to send out internally to promote BI4ALL!

In motorcycling being visible can mean the difference between making it to your destination, or ending up in the hospital (or worse) and in business intelligence it is just as important. If the business doesn’t know you are there, they won’t know who to ask when they need a business intelligence solution, and worse yet, when times get tough it may be the BI team on the chopping block.

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The certification required a series of three tests (minimum) with the first two being the same for all the “tracks” of certifications. The first of the common tests is the IS Core, which tests a broad base of knowledge for general IT/IS laborers. These questions range from needs of a financial reporting system to decoding binary. If you haven’t been in IT organizations for very long you may have a tough time with this test. The second of the common tests is the Data Warehousing Core, which tests general knowledge about data warehousing. Here you will find questions on Kimball and Inmon, full life cycle awareness and general terms and topics as they relate to the practice. The last test is your specialization test, of which you can choose 1 of the 4 listed above, or take all four and get multiple certifications… the choice is yours. I took the Business Analytics test, so that’s the only one I can speak in confidence about. That test focused on OLAP, visualization techniques and data presentation.

I passed my certification tests at the Data Warehouse Institute’s World Conference in Las Vegas in February of 2011. I sat for all three tests during the week, which on top of sitting in the sessions all day, and the fact the conference was in Vegas, made it a challenge in and of itself. Each test lasts a maximum of 90 minutes during which you must answer 110 questions. You also have the option to have the tests administered remotely for an additional fee if you cannot attend the conferences. To actually pass the certification exams you must score a 50% on all three exams (not an average of 50%). If you score 70% or more on all three exams (again, not an average) you will obtain a mastery certification. I scored 61% on my IS Core, 74% on the Data Warehousing Core and 71% on the Business Analytics. I have the option to retake the IS Core to get my mastery, but I don’t think I would fare any better on that test if I were to retake it.

The big question that I get asked is “How did you prepare for the tests?”

Well, I started by ordering the CBIP Preparation Guide from TDWI, but I will tell you that the only thing that it really prepares you for is the testing format because it includes practice exam software. The guide does give you an idea of the types of questions that will be on the test, but as far as strict guidance on what will be on the test; don’t expect that from the guide.

Each sample test in the guide has a section of references, both internet and books. For example, the IS Core exam there is 3 and a half pages of reference materials. I don’t think you would be able to successfully absorb all the information for three tests and even still, the questions being asked will not match anything that appeared in those resources. Truth be told, I never looked at the reference materials and went solely based on my background for a three tests. For the record, I’ve worked in 6 different industries and been doing data warehouse development since 1997.

The other options for preparation are the sessions that are available at the TDWI conferences, I did attend the session on the IS Core and Data Warehousing Core tests, just as a refresher before I took the exams. These sessions are a good indicator of if you should take the tests or not… if you feel comfortable with what is being talked about, you have a better than average change of passing, if you feel like they are talking over your head, just walk away. These tests are designed to test your knowledge that you have gained during the course of your career, and it is not something you can “cram” for and expect to pass.

If you have specific question please email me as I would be happy to answer them as a person who has firsthand experience with the exam process.