Involve SMEs when gathering requirements. They know what they need!

In most report writing projects, the biggest challenge as a consultant is to quickly gain an understanding of the client’s data. A consultant needs to get a good grasp of all systems and business logic at the requirements gathering stage before embarking on report development.

It is useful working with the company’s IT department, especially in terms of understanding the use and impact of the chosen technologies/applications on the project. However, a consultant also needs to understand the business itself, which includes gathering knowledge on the company’s business model and its success drivers, KPIs, and how the report’s data will be used in monitoring and controlling these drivers.  This is very important in order to ensure that the requirements are complete and make sense, both from a technical and business perspective.

It can be challenging to gain a deep understanding of these factors if the sources of information are limited to the IT department. Meetings with subject matter experts is required to achieve depth and breadth of knowledge. Some clients do provide schema diagrams and a few sample queries, but the success of a BI engagement demands much more.

The consultant needs to make a concerted effort to find the people that know the data. These people may or may not be included in the BI project but their knowledge on how to pull the data and analyze it can be invaluable to the BI initiative. A consultant should make sure that these key players are an elemental part of the requirements gathering and testing process. These individuals can usually determine very quickly if the data is correct, reducing time wasted. Having them available as a resource throughout a BI project can not only make the requirements gathering and development process easier, it can help ensure that the data is accurate and used properly to allow for optimal business analysis.

Here are some of the key areas which these individuals can help with include:

• Generalizing specific information obtained for a single report, which enables the consultant to anticipate future requests and be flexible in meeting client needs in the future. The knowledgeable individuals can help to define clear and clean criteria.
• Refining specifications that are incomplete or open-ended, taking into consideration both technical and business perspectives, to reduce redundancies and repetition.
• Reconciling the “logic-based” mindset of a programmer with the “business-based” perspective of the user. This may lead to illogical requests that generate no data.
• Codifying generalized user requests. It is a good idea to have the user create a request in a single sentence, in the form of an actual question the report will provide the answer to. This will reduce wasted effort and allow the consultant to deliver the report in the most concise, comprehensive, and efficient format.

We are helping our clients with their report development and business analytics projects. To learn more about the report development process, connect with us. We are happy to provide free consultations.