BI Through the Lens of Strategy and Tactics
I thought I would pass along a link to an article called "Strategy, Tactics, and Business Intelligence" that I wrote for TechLINKS magazine. It was just published online today. Here's a brief excerpt:
So what do strategy and tactics have to do with business intelligence? Consider what both the General and the Sergeant need to do their jobs effectively: information--not only accurate and timely information, but the right information. If we start with the idea that the primary goal of business intelligence is to extract information from the data-oriented software systems of the enterprise, then the next questions are, who needs the information and why? A person with primarily strategic concerns needs different information than a person with primarily tactical concerns.
TechLINKS is a regionally focused technology industry magazine based in Atlanta, Georgia, US, where I live and work. It's a good magazine, but if you don't live in this area, you've probably not heard of it. They publish all their articles for free reading, though, and I'm pretty sure they have RSS feeds.
This article is based on some ideas I've been bouncing around for awhile, and I enjoyed this opportunity to try them out. What do you think?
Dan
Good Intro
This is exactly the level of explanation and audience focus that is missing from most technical articles and books.
In the general sense, business professionals need to understand the kinds of concepts you're laying out in this article. High-level, entire playing field definitions.
And in the specific BI-releated sense, you did a good job of turning down the buzz enough to hear what's really being said. Good one.