BI Requirements Portfolio

Definition:

While it can be undertaken as a stand-alone project, definition of a BI Requirements Portfolio is often a key part of a broader BI Roadmap project. Under both scenarios, DecisionPath defines the BI Requirements Portfolio as the set of specific, defined opportunities to leverage BI for such purposes as reducing costs, acquiring and retaining profitable customers, achieving operational excellence, increasing campaign effectiveness, meeting regulatory mandates, delivering more robust management and financial information, improving strategic performance, reducing reporting costs, and driving top-line growth.

Purposes:

1. Identify and document the primary business improvement opportunities endorsed by the business communities of interest and that will motivate business sponsorship for BI and build business commitment to improving the targeted business processes by leveraging BI.
2. Identify and document the requirements for business information, analytical applications, and decision support that are associated with each of the primary business improvement opportunities.
3. Identify and document the general uses and users of the business information, analytical applications, and decision support associated with each of the primary business improvement opportunities as the basis for BI tool requirements.
4. Identify current and target process improvement measurements/metrics for the primary business improvement opportunities.
5. Develop business consensus about the relative priorities among the primary business improvement opportunities.

Benefits:

1. Prioritized BI requirements endorsed by the business community provide a rational basis for business and technical planning and risk management within the broader BI Roadmap.
2. Business-driven BI requirements increase probability of business adoption of deployed BI applications and of capturing targeted improvements to business results.
3. Business-driven BI requirements provide a fundamentally sound basis for specifying IT functional requirements, information architecture requirements, and BI tool requirements and help resolve “religious wars” over technology and technical architecture.