How do you manage BI user requirements and needs for different project types and sizes?

1 Project types and sizes

Before you start collecting and analyzing user requirements and needs, you need to define the scope and scale of your BI project. Depending on the complexity, duration, and resources involved, you may have different types of BI projects such as ad hoc projects, ongoing projects, or strategic projects. Ad hoc projects are short-term and specific, while ongoing projects are long-term and broad. Strategic projects are high-level and transformative. Each type of project requires its own management style and tools. The type and size of your BI project will affect how you manage your user requirements and needs, as well as the methods and techniques you use.

2 User roles and perspectives

When managing BI user requirements and needs, it’s important to consider the role and perspective of your users. Depending on their function, level, and interest, they may have different expectations and preferences for the BI solution. For example, executives are interested in the big picture and strategic goals, so they prefer concise, high-level insights. Managers need detailed, operational insights to monitor and optimize performance and efficiency. Lastly, analysts require granular, technical insights to uncover patterns, trends, and anomalies. To effectively manage user requirements and needs, you must identify the different user roles and perspectives involved in your BI project and tailor your solution accordingly.

3 User requirements and needs

User requirements and needs are the specifications and expectations that your users have for your BI solution, which define what they want to achieve, what information they need, how they want to access and interact with it, and how they want to measure and evaluate it. These can be split into two categories: functional requirements and needs (e.g. data sources, data models, data quality, data analysis, data visualization, data delivery, and data security) and non-functional requirements and needs (e.g. usability, reliability, performance, scalability, maintainability, and compatibility). To collect and document these user requirements and needs you should use various tools such as interviews, surveys, workshops, observations, prototypes, use cases, user stories, and a requirements traceability matrix.

4 User engagement and feedback

User engagement and feedback are essential processes for involving and communicating with your users throughout your BI project lifecycle. They help validate, verify, and refine user requirements, as well as test, evaluate, and improve your BI solution. User engagement and feedback can take many forms, such as user research to understand user context, behavior, pain points, and needs; user participation to collaborate with users; user testing to ensure requirements are met; and user feedback to measure satisfaction and value. To ensure successful user engagement and feedback, you need to maintain clear and consistent communication with users and use techniques such as agile methodology, user-centered design, prototyping, iteration, and feedback loop.