Flaherty: Sure. So business intelligence is about getting access to information that can help you make better more relevant business decisions. So for example it spans across any role that you have inside your organization right down from somebody who’s working in a bank trying to decide whether or not to give somebody a loan, being able to feed them the information that they need to be able to make that decision all the way up to the CEO who runs the business and needs to know sort of high level metrics.
Bord: So, what are the IT pros kind of missing with business intelligence right now? How can business intelligence really help us as IT pros?
Flaherty: Well business intelligence, a large component of that is performance management so being able to manage and understand what’s happening in your business or for the IT pro inside of your IT department. So, knowing and setting matrix to monitor the performance of IT infrastructure is one of the ways that you can use BI in the IT department.
Bord: So it’s really going beyond the event log, going beyond watching your performance calendar for an hour straight, it’s taking it to the next level?
Flaherty: Yeah it's understanding what's happening and being able dive into the data behind why something happened and getting sort of the root cause behind it so that you can course correct and make changes to make the system as a whole better.
Bord: Explain the ways the Director of Software Development uses BI applications.
Flaherty:
Strategic Planning and Roadmapping
The Director of Software Development leverages BI applications to drive strategic planning and roadmapping. By analyzing historical data and market trends, the director can forecast future technology needs and development priorities. BI tools provide insights into past project performance, helping to identify which initiatives yielded the most value and where improvements are needed. This data-driven approach allows the director to create a robust and realistic development roadmap, aligning software projects with business goals and market demands.
Resource Allocation and Management
Effective resource allocation is crucial for the success of any software development team. BI applications help the director assess current resource utilization and predict future requirements. By examining metrics such as developer productivity, project timelines, and workload distribution, the director can make informed decisions about resource allocation. This ensures that the right talent is assigned to the right projects, optimizing team efficiency and reducing bottlenecks. Additionally, BI tools can identify underutilized resources, enabling the director to reassign or retrain staff as needed.
Performance Monitoring and Optimization
BI applications provide the Director of Software Development with real-time performance monitoring capabilities. Dashboards and reports track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as code quality, defect rates, and sprint velocity. By continuously monitoring these metrics, the director can identify performance issues early and implement corrective actions. BI tools also facilitate A/B testing and performance benchmarking, allowing the director to compare different development strategies and optimize processes for better outcomes.
Risk Management and Mitigation
Risk management is a critical aspect of software development. The director uses BI applications to identify and mitigate risks throughout the development lifecycle. BI tools analyze historical project data to uncover common risk factors and predict potential issues. For example, high defect rates in certain code modules or frequent delays in specific project phases can be flagged as areas of concern. Armed with this information, the director can proactively address risks, allocate additional resources to high-risk areas, and develop contingency plans to minimize project disruptions.
Customer Feedback and Satisfaction
Understanding and responding to customer feedback is essential for delivering high-quality software products. BI applications aggregate and analyze customer feedback from various channels, such as support tickets, user reviews, and social media. The Director of Software Development uses this data to gain insights into customer satisfaction and identify common pain points. By correlating customer feedback with development metrics, the director can prioritize feature requests, bug fixes, and enhancements that will have the most significant impact on user experience.
Financial Management and Budgeting
BI applications assist the director in managing the financial aspects of software development. Detailed financial dashboards track project budgets, expenditures, and return on investment (ROI). By analyzing cost data, the director can identify areas where the team is overspending and implement cost-saving measures. BI tools also facilitate scenario planning, allowing the director to model the financial impact of different development strategies and make data-driven budgeting decisions. This ensures that the software development department operates within budget while maximizing value.
Collaboration and Communication
Effective collaboration and communication are vital for the success of software development projects. BI applications enhance these aspects by providing a centralized platform for sharing data and insights. The Director of Software Development can use BI tools to create and share interactive dashboards and reports with stakeholders, ensuring everyone has access to the same information. This transparency fosters collaboration between development teams, project managers, and business leaders, aligning efforts and ensuring that everyone is working towards common goals.
Continuous Improvement and Innovation
Finally, BI applications drive continuous improvement and innovation within the software development department. By analyzing development metrics and outcomes, the director can identify best practices and areas for improvement. BI tools support iterative development and continuous delivery by providing real-time feedback on the impact of process changes. This data-driven approach encourages a culture of experimentation and learning, enabling the software development team to innovate and adapt to changing market conditions and technological advancements.
More Articles About BI
Effective Analytical Environment - So what are the kinds of benefits that companies can expect to see with an effective analytical environment? Well, first as we talked about on the previous few slides, the best companies see an enhanced ability to make quicker decisions. More of these companies saw that accelerated decision speed as we see in the chart on the left. This then leads to an enhanced ability to satisfy increasingly demanding customers. Seventy-seven percent of best performing companies saw an improvement or substantial improvement in customer response time. With faster decisions along with faster customer response time comes increased business opportunities...
Evaluate InetSoft's Report Software Hyperlink Features - Looking for report software with hyperlinks? InetSoft is a pioneer in self-service reporting and you can embed hyperlinks in reports and dashboards. View a demo and try interactive examples...
Improved Intelligence Is Enhancing Education - Improving intelligence within the sector will give institutions, from kindergartens to colleges, the insight to understand their students better while providing the tools, technology, experiences, and formats that result in real success, both personal and professional. Taking the framework of a business intelligence application, educational institutions can adopt a data-driven mindset. The data-driven institution can leverage the insights available at its fingertips to enrich its offerings, improve its course content, and boost its retention rates...
InetSoft's Approach to Data Mining - InetSoft offers an advantage over competitors by combining unique, intuitive visuals with a user-friendly interface that makes analyzing data quick and easy. With InetSoft's web-based technology, users can access data from just about any source, regardless of database size. Small data sets are managed with more efficiency than with most popular tools through web-based real-time data access and a robust capacity for visual graphics. However, InetSoft was also created with a priority on handling big datasets, offering data grid cache technology to compress and manage even the biggest datasets without lag time...