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Presented by Dave Wells
> Time: Registration/Refreshments - 8:30-9:00 a.m.
Presentation -
9:00-11:00 a.m.
Announcements
- 11:00-11:30 a.m.
Location: Standard Insurance Auditorium
Presentation Downloads:
Bringing Business and IT
Together (handouts).pdf
Bringing Business and IT
Together.pps
Working relationships and effective communication between business and IT
organizations are always challenging, yet they are increasingly visible as
critical project success factors. From the beginning of business computer
systems we’ve found it difficult to bring business and IT people together as
effective teams. Business people are frequently put off by technical jargon,
and IT people often lack the depth of business understanding needed to work
with the business. In the past we’ve responded to the challenge with concepts
such as “partnership” and “bridging the gap.” These responses were adequate to
the job of transaction systems development and marginally effective for data
warehousing. As we enter the era of business intelligence (BI) however,
business-IT relationships become critical and the answers of the past no longer
work. BI is the catalyst to bring business and IT together. The conventional
business-IT partnership is laden with barriers to innovation in business
performance alignment, information architecture practices, and delivery of
actionable information. Howard Smith and Peter Fingar offer powerful advice
when they say “Don’t bridge the business-IT divide: Obliterate it!” [Business
Process Management (BPM): The Third Wave, Smith and Fingar, Meghan-Kiffer
Press, 2003]. To obliterate the gap – to dissolve the distinction between
business and IT – is a process of deep organizational and cultural change. This
presentation reviews two perspectives from which business and IT people can
find common ground for communication and take the first steps to change
culturally and organizationally: 1. Value Chains: Understanding different value
chain points-of-view helps to develop common understanding. IT typically works
with a data-to-value approach where business management uses a goals-to-value
system. We’ll look at the shared elements and the differences between these
viewpoints to understand how they complement rather than conflict. 2. The
Business Intelligence Framework: The BI Framework depicts a widely-accepted
structure to organize the components of BI programs, projects, and systems.
Though generally endorsed by business and IT people, we may be looking at the
same framework and seeing different things. Understanding how business people,
IT management, and technical staff each view the framework sets the stage for
common understanding and shared views. With this background, we’ll look at what
it takes to become and effective BI organization – one where both business and
IT skills are present in the same organization, and frequently in the same
individuals. Organizational and cultural changes are perhaps the most
challenging of all transitions. But we’ve now reached the point where they are
essential changes. With business intelligence, business and technology are
irrevocably interwoven. It’s time for organizations to become similarly
interconnected.
You and your organization will realize greater impact from this presentation if
it is attended by both business and IT people. If you are from IT and planning
to attend, please invite your business colleagues to join you. If you are from
business and planning to attend, bring IT colleagues with you.
About the Speaker Dave Wells is the Director of Education for The Data
Warehousing Institute (TDWI). He is a Certified Business Intelligence
Professional (CBIP) having achieved mastery level certification in the areas of
leadership and management, business analytics, data analysis and design, and
data integration. Dave is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, an
independent data warehousing consultant, and a contributing author to industry
publications. Through an IT career of more than 30 years, Dave worked in
management, analysis and design, quality assurance, data administration,
programming, consulting, and education roles. With firm conviction that IT
people must become more business literate and business people more IT
knowledgeable, he set out to “practice what he preaches” leaving IT to assume
his current position with for strategy, planning, and execution
responsibilities for a major line of business.
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