BI Business Requirements

A Framework for Business Analysts

Nancy Williams, VP
DecisionPath Consulting
nancy.williams@decisionpath.com

Copyright DecisionPath Consulting 2011 All Rights Reserved

BI- What Are We Trying to Achieve?

Business
Information

Business
Measurement
& Analysis

Business
Decisions

Business
Actions

In the Context of Business Processes

Management
Processes, e.g.
Planning, Budgeting,
Controlling

Equals
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Customer
Processes, e.g.
Marketing, Sales,
Customer Service

Operating Processes,
e.g. Manufacturing,
Order Fulfillment,
Billing

Business Intelligence and

Business Results $$$

Maturing Information Models

Information Requirements- the new BI Paradigm

Traditional Information
Requirements Approaches
Report layouts
List of Data Elements
Query and reporting
specifications
Oriented around what is
needed, with little business
context
Build it and they will come
approach

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Business Intelligence Requirements

Approach

What business information do we need?

For what business analyses?
In support of which key business decisions?
That impact what core business processes?
To deliver how much business value?
Via what changes to people, processes, and
technology

What Do We Need to Do?

Create a BI Strategy- Define BI Opportunities
Create
Create aa BI
BI
Strategy
Strategy

Identify
Identify Risks
Risks
&
Change
& Change
Imperatives
Imperatives

Aligns BI needs with Business

Drivers, Strategies, and
Processes

Identifies specific
opportunities for using BI to
improve business performance

Articulates explicit business

case for each opportunity

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Develop
Develop BI
BI
Program
Program &
&
Release
Release Plans
Plans

Execute
Execute via
via
Best
Practices
Best Practices

Leverage
Leverage BI
BI
for
Profit
for Profit
Improvement
Improvement

BI Business Requirements Process

Inputs

Requirements Activities

Conduct Requirements Interviews, Facilitated Sessions

Artifacts
Analytic
Needs,
Metrics, KPIs

Define
Analytical
Areas

Metrics

Inputs to Next
Phases

Input to
Release
Planning
Analytic Needs
Matrix

Reports

Identify
Business
Questions

Document
Terms and
Definitions
Definition of
Terms

Interview Notes

Define/ Refine
Facts &
Qualifiers

Input to Logical
Modeling
Fact/ Qualifier
Matrix
Map to Data
Sources

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BI Requirements Preparation
Understanding the Strategic Context- Business Drivers,
Goals, and Strategies

Private sector
SEC filings
Annual Report
Business and IT strategic
plans
Industry analyses
Trade association web sites
Documents that describe
current architecture and
technical environment
Existing business
plans/justification documents
for enterprise applications
Research to determine
business processes, business
context and key business
processes
Balanced Scorecard(s)

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Public sector
Many of the same types of
documents noted for Private
Sector
Agency strategic plans
Agency mission and vision
statements
Current and next year
budgets
OMB documents
Relevant public policy
documentation

BI Requirements Preparation
Develop a Hypothesis and Prepare Participants
1. Establish Strategic Context and Understanding of Business Drivers,
Goals, and Strategies
2. Determine current, as-is information capabilities
3. Develop a working hypothesis regarding new to-be BI capabilities that
align with and support business goals and strategies
4. Notify participants about the purpose of interviews/facilitated sessions
and how they can prepare

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Facilitated Sessions and InterviewsMaking Connections- Business Alignment

Define Analytical Areas

Business Questions:
What are my sales by region?
What is the historical average
amount paid by claim type?
What is our revenue at the
product level?
How many customer service
calls did I get yesterday?
1. Define themes or
areas for analysis

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Analytical Areas:
Sales and Revenue Analysis:
What are my sales by region?
What is our revenue at the
product level?
Claims Analysis:
What is the historical average
amount paid by claim type?
Customer Service Analysis:
How many customer service
calls did I get yesterday?
2. Group questions
into analytical
areas

Analytic Needs,
Metric, KPIs
3. Define
purpose/story
for analytical
area explaining
BI impact
opportunities

Analytic Needs
Matrix
4. Align analytic
needs areas with
business goals

Sample Artifact- Analytic Needs Glossary

Analytic Needs Glossary
Cross-Selling Analysis:

Customer Complaint Analysis:

While a business goal exists to increase revenue through

better leveraging cross-selling opportunities, information is
currently not available to improve the management of
current cross-selling efforts. Current cross-selling
information is limited to counting cross-selling events.
Cross-selling analysis will enable managers to analyze the
effectiveness cross-selling pilot programs across the
organization. It will enable managers to adjust messaging,
and customer targets, based on the effectiveness of pilot
programs. This type of information is critical to achieving
increased cross-selling revenue targets.
Questions:
1.What is the actual vs. projected cross-selling events and
associated revenue by pilot by location, by department, by
time?
2.Which pilots aimed at the same customer targets were
the most and least effective based by demographic profile?

While there is an established corporate goal to improve

customer satisfaction ratings, there is currently no
information to quantify or analyze complaints. Currently
the only information available is the number of customer
calls. It is unclear how many of these calls relate to
different types of customer complaints.
Customer complaint analysis will enable managers to
quantify customer complaints over time and to
understand why customers are complaining.
Management can then take steps to resolve the
underlying problems associated with customer
dissatisfaction expressed through complaints.
Questions:
1.How many customer complaints were their by
complaint type by time?
2.What products/services are associated with the
most/least customer complaints? How has this changed
over time?

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Sample Artifact- Analytic Needs Matrix

Analytic Needs Matrix
Analytic Needs
Business Goals
1.

Increase Revenue through

leveraging cross-selling
opportunities.

2.

Improve Customer Satisfaction by

reducing customer complaint
levels.

3.

Continue to enroll new members by

establishing new channels,
marketing to new demographic
groups.

Cross-selling Customer
Analysis Segmentation

Customer
Complaint
Analysis

Customer
Satisfaction
Analysis

continued list of goals

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10

Sample Artifact- Fact/Qualifier Matrix

A1

A1, A2, A1, A2 A1, A2 A1, A2 A1, A2 A1, A2

A4

Period

A2, A4,A2, A7, A2, A8

A7, A8 A8

A5

A1, A2,A1, A2,A1, A2, A1, A2 A1, A2,A1, A2,

A7, A8,A7, A8, A8, A9
A7, A8, A8, A9
A9
A9
A9
A2, A7 A2, ,
A8

A5

New-Existing

Loyalty-level

Response-type

Correspondencecosts

A6
A6

A7

A7

A6

A7

A7

A6

A7

A7

A3

Airline-type
Loyalty-level

Response-rates

A1

Airport (start,
destination, transfer)
Brand

A2

Award-cnt

A1

Average-number-oftickets

A1

Average-number-oftrips

A1

Tickets-perreservation

Revenue

A1

Number-ofreservations

Number-of-legs

Date

Number-of-trips

Qualifiers

Facts

Member-cnt

Fact/Qualifier: From Questions to Data

A7, A8,A7, A8, A8, A9

A9
A9

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A3

A7, A8, A8, A9

A9

11

Sample Artifact- Definition of Terms

Definition of Terms
Example: Define customer for a hotel chain
Possibilities include:
1. A customer is a hotel customer
2. A customer is someone who makes a reservation
3. A customer is someone who has had at least one stay at a hotel
4. A customer may be a business or individual who rents a hotel facility
5. A customer is someone who signs up for the hotel loyalty program
6. A customer may not make the reservation; is the person who made the
reservation the customer, or the person who stayed?
Candidate definition:
A customer is an individual, group, or business who has received one or more hotel
services, including hotel stays, facility rentals, and/or other additional hotel
services, such as spa services. Hotel services may or may not have been paid for
by the customer. A customer does not have to complete a hotel stay to be
considered a customer.

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12

BI Requirements Alignment and Traceability

Requirements Artifact Summary

Traceability

What are the measurement

and analytic (information)
need areas of the business?
What specific questions need to be
answered for each information
need area?
How do these information
needs map to the business
goals?
What facts and qualifiers are
needed to answer the business
questions?
What are the shared definitions
for business specific terms and
acronyms?

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Analytic
Needs,
Metrics, KPIs

Analytic Needs
Matrix

Fact/Qualifier
Matrix

Business
Requirements
Database
Definition of Terms

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Reservations
Reservations &
&
Loyalty
Loyalty Member
Member
tables;
tables; Data
Data
Quality
Quality OK
OK

High

This is a business
question. It needs to be
4 lines and should not
be readable.

Weekly

1 year prior to start of

promotion, 2 periods after
the end. Use current values
for member addresses

Reservations &
Loyalty Member;
Quality OK

High

This is a business
question. It needs to be
4 lines and should not
be readable.

Weekly

1 year prior to start of

promotion, 2 periods after
the end. Use current values
for member addresses

Reservations &
Loyalty Member;
Quality OK

This is a business
question. It needs to be
4 lines and should not
be readable.

Weekly

1 year prior to start of

promotion, 2 periods after
the end. Use current values
for member addresses

Reservations &
Loyalty Member;
Quality OK

High

What
What are
are the
the measurable
measurable
statistics
statistics (member
(member count,
count,
trips,
trips, revenue,
revenue, tickets,
tickets,
reservations)
reservations) by
by airport,
airport,

11 year
year prior
prior to
to start
start of
of
promotion,
promotion, 22 periods
periods
after
after the
the end.
end. Use
Use
current
current values
values for
for
member
member addresses
addresses

Revenue Lift,
Capacity Filled
Lift,

This is a note

Revenue Lift,
Capacity Filled
Lift,

Medium

This is a business
question. It needs to be
4 lines and should not
be readable.

Weekly

1 year prior to start of

promotion, 2 periods after
the end. Use current values
for member addresses

Reservations &
Loyalty Member;
Quality OK

Program cost in
dollars

Medium

This is a business
question. It needs to be
4 lines and should not
be readable.

Weekly

1 year prior to start of

promotion, 2 periods after
the end. Use current values
for member addresses

Reservations &
Loyalty Member;
Quality OK

Revenue Lift,
Capacity Filled
Lift,

This is a business
question. It needs to be
4 lines and should not
be readable.

Weekly

1 year prior to start of

promotion, 2 periods after
the end. Use current values
for member addresses

Reservations &
Loyalty Member;
Quality OK

Revenue Lift,
Capacity Filled
Lift,

Low

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Notes

3 Years

BI Success
Metrics

Daily

Sourcing and
Data Quality
Issues

History
Requirements

Manage Promotions
on-going Monitoring
promotion & Analysis
Expand loyal
Info
customer
base

Time
Requirements

Business
Question

Keep loyal
customers

Analytic Need

Business
Goal(s)

Loyalty
Marketing

Business
Process

User
Group(s)

Priority

Additional BI Business Requirements

This is a note

14

Re Busin
qu
ire ess
me
nts

From Requirements to BI Opportunities

Analytic Needs,
Metrics, KPIs

Business
Value
Analytic Needs
Matrix

T
Re ech
qu nic
ire al
me
nts

BI
Opportunity
Map (Portfolio)

BI Program
Plan
(Release
Strategy)

Data Source
Analysis

Technical
Architecture

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Implementation
Risk

15

Developing the BI Opportunity Portfolio

What specific BI project opportunities exist to deliver business value?

Supply Chain
Analysis

Revenue
Management

High Risk /
Reward

Plums

Business Impact

High

Customer
Service Anal.

Inventory
Management

Easy Wins

Category
Management

Why Do It?

Low
Low

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Risk

High

16

BI Opportunity Checklist
Opportunity n

Opportunity Checklist:
What business goals and strategies are in focus?
As is definition:
What information is currently available to support

these business goals and strategies

What business questions cant be answered and why
is this a problem?

To be definition:
What type of BI capability (provide name) is needed?
How will this BI capability address the business

problem?
What specific business questions need to be
answered?

What business improvement opportunities can be

realized through using this BI capability?
How does this help achieve business goals and
strategies?
How will performance improvements be measured?
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17

Use Requirements to Implement

Business Information
Requirements

Design &
Development

From Questions to Data

Logical Models

Definition of Terms
Analytic Needs,
Metrics, KPIs

Prototype
Alignment

TRACEABILITY

Gather Information
Requirements

Design Inputs

Transformation Rules

Reports Design

Analytic Needs Matrix

Fact:Qualifier Matrix

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Development

18

Prototyping- From Opportunity to Design

User Profiles

Execs and Senior

Management

Usage Scenarios

Business Process:
Customer Service Order Fulfillment

Manage customer relationships

This data use

Business Activity

Business Scenario

Middle Management,
Analysts, Power Users

Delivery Methods

Leads to this information

Look at order fill rate by

customer

One set of customers are lower than the

average

Compare to target fill rate and

explore year to date trends

We are not meeting target fill rates for these

customers and service levels have dropped

Explore the orders by product

and location

Identify common traits for lower order fill

rates (similar products, shipping location,
etc)

Dashboards, Scorecards

Offer promotions to retain these customers

Business Decisions

Reports

Correct cause of lower fill rates (underestimated sales

forecast, manufacturing problem, distribution center backlog)

Knowledge Workers,
Casual Users

Who will use the

information?

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How will they use the

information?

OLAP, Ad-Hoc Query

How should the

information be
delivered?
19

Questions and Discussion

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20