AgileBI Delivery
As a BI Practitioner
I want to understand how to deliver in an AgileBI way
So that I can deliver faster and with less risk
There are a number of Agile focussed delivery techniques that you should implement when deliverying Data, Analytics or Visualisations in an AgileBI way.
There are also a raft of waterfall focussed techniques, that have minimal value in an AgileBI approach and so should be avoided if possible.
The articles below provide more details on both.
Requirements
ODE & 3CPO – Talking multiple languages
When we decided to start building ODE we knew a few things already. One of those things was that most of our customers already had data warehousing technology.
They had already invested in Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, SAS, Teradata, Informatica or any of the other raft of data warehouse repositories and ELT technologies that are abound in the market place.
We also knew that it would be a big decision on their part to throw out this technology and implement the technology we decided to pick to be able to use ODE and gain the AgileBI benefits that it provides.
ODE – The start of a journey
About two years ago we started a journey into the world of AgileBI. It all started out of frustration (as most journeys do), frustration about the magic sauce.
The magic sauce was the reason why one data warehouse project would be a raving success and the next a ‘meh’. It was often the reason that after delivering a raving success and then returning 12 months later I would find the data warehouse had become a ‘meh’. By that I mean not updated, not well managed and not delivering to the stakeholders expectations.
The little things I love about YellowfinBI #5
User Guide Videos! Typically I dislike youtube videos and prefer to follow the tutorials to get something done. But when I was using the Yellowfin Append Sub Query functionality in anger the other day I just couldn't get it to do what I wanted, even as I followed the...
The little things I love about YellowfinBI #4
Subqueries! Often you want to manipulate the data you are using to get a report just the way the user wants. And often this requires you to do sub queries on the data you are using (for me it was creating columns for my measures based on offset periods, so I could...
The little things I love about YellowfinBI #3
Up to date and easy to find documentation! One of the coolest things about Yellowfin is that they do releases every month which includes squashed bugs and a raft of smaller new features, as well as point releases every six months or so, that typically introduce major...
Introduction
As a Reader of this site
I want to understand what it is about
So that I know whether I should keep reading
The little things I love about YellowfinBI #2
Making the impact of editing the semantic layers visible. When you edit a semantic layer that is being used by users, there is a high chance that you are going to effect the Dashboards and Reports they are using. Why? Because you are changing the underlying layer that...
The little things I love about YellowfinBI #1
Additive and Semi Additive Measures! When creating measures in your semantic layer (called Views in Yellowfin, Universes in BO, Information Maps in SAS, RPD in OBIEE etc) its important to be able to define your measures as additive or semi additive to ensure they...
Yellowfin makes changing view names seamless
One of the frustrations I have with many BI products I have used is that they often state all their components are fully integrated. But when you go to use it in anger you find gaps that increase the effort required to do simple things. Often its around metadata...
Yellowfin just makes a noob feel welcome
One of the things you often hear is people discussing how sexy or easy to use a BI tool is. I remember when I was at Oracle and for my (future) sins was trying to sell Oracle Applications up against Peoplesoft. We constantly got our arses whipped and one of the...
We are BEAM’ing Lawrence Corr to NZ in 2015
As part of our adoption of AgileBI, we have started the journey using the BEAM* methodology, to introduce Agile in our requirements gathering and data modelling approach. We have used this approach on a couple of projects, and as Shaun has blogged, we have also done...
UX Design, looks like a fun journey, and lots of opinions
We are at the stage with MagnumBI that we will soon be starting to develop the web front-end that enables business users to configure their own data warehouse structures. Its going to be based on a business model construct rather than a ETL construct (what business...
Meet the Orange Family
When we were deciding what software components we would embed in MagnumBI to provide all the capability we needed, without having to build it all ourselves. we evaluated them based on a couple of core criteria such as: Features/functions of the product Licensing cost...
The Art of Weeding
The other weekend we weeded our garden at home. It was a funny old thing, one of us would start on an area that was covered in weeds, pull them out on mass and then eventually move on to another area (either believing we had done a good job and finished the area, or...
RapidMiner Repository Database Options
When you install RapidMiner Server it automatically installs a repository inside the database of your choice. And the choices are (in RapidMiner Server 6.x): MySQl Postgres Oracle Microsoft Sql Server Ingres The repository holds all the metadata, config etc for your...
RapidMiner Documentation
As we delve into using new tools, one of the first things we do is list all the resources we can find for the given product/tool etc so we can easily find it later. So i'm going to put everything I find in this blog in case your looking for it too. RapidMiner Official...
This week I sat and listened to a leader
His name is Matt Mullenweg. This is what he looks like: Matt is a Leader. Matt is also 30, a Texan who lives in San Fran now and 11 years ago he started the open source software called Wordpress, via a "Not for Profit"organisation Wordpress.org. Did you know that...
Do you stand out in a crowd?
As I have mentioned I have sat through a lot of presentation this year. When I get bored my mind wanders. One of these times I thought: "I wonder if all these different BI company tag lines are similar" So here we go, a selection of tag lines from BI companies:...
To blog or not to blog ……
I returned a while ago from four weeks overseas in a family holiday. I had thought I would spend the down time in the evening catching up with my reading and writing some blogs I have had in my head for a while. I managed to achieve one of the two. If you follow our...
? vs ?
As you may have noticed we have launched Poli vs Poli, a micro website that shows a number of metrics based on tweets about New Zealand politicians. Somebody asked me the other days where the Idea came from. We had the idea a few years ago before the last election....
Complexity is often the basis for making something simple
When we launched MagnumBI our goal was to make Business Intelligence as simple as possible for our customers. As a result we have ended up building a fairly complex architecture under the covers. Why you might ask? If you think about Dropbox it's a very simple product...