BI 50% cheaper, 30% faster - how?

Beverley Head
Tuesday, 03 May 2011 17:22

Proponents of the Agile approach to systems development claim they can build a business intelligence system with zero defects 30 per cent faster and 50 per cent cheaper than traditional methods would allow. Not surprisingly Government and big business is listening.

The Agile approach forces IT workers and business people to work together to sketch out rough parameters for a system, and then build prototypes which can be quickly refined or junked. 'Fail fast, fix fast' is something of a mantra for Agile aficionados.

According to Ralph Hughes, chief systems architect for Ceregenics, who is currently conducting master-classes on Agile BI in Australia, with traditional waterfall development, where software is only delivered after the completion of concept, analysis, design, construction, testing and maintenance, business people are often forced to commit $10 million and wait a year before they receive even the first version of a business intelligence solution.

He said that using Agile approaches and tools it was possible to deliver the first iteration of an enterprise BI system in just 15 weeks.  It's that which has attracted the likes of Lockheed, Eli Lilley and Stanford University to the approach he said.

In Australia according to Blair Delzoppo, a partner at C3 Business Solutions which sponsored Mr Hughes' trip, there is a rising tide of interest in the Agile approach from Federal government departments, the banks and other large enterprises.

C3 has already revealed that it is working on a much anticipated business intelligence application for NSW's Railcorp which will track how many of its services are on time. That application though has l taken quite some time to deliver, and the project is fast approaching its first birthday.

Mr Hughes was however adamant that Agile in general allowed faster, more effective BI solutions to be rolled out. In a system completed earlier this year for a US telco Mr Hughes claimed that two BI solutions had been developed simultaneously - one to track video sales was developed using the waterfall approach, one to track cell phone sales using an Agile approach.

 

How much will you save? read on...