Automated Data Warehouse Testing
Remember that our goal in agile BI development is the frequent release of production quality working software for user feedback and acceptance. At the end of each iteration or sprint, and each release...
View ArticleBI System Version Control and Code Management
If your data warehouse server(s) burned up in a fire, how long would it take to redeploy the system into production? If you discovered a critical defect in your production BI system, how long would it...
View ArticleAgility in Dislocated Teams
(The following is a repost of my response to a question about outsourced BI and geographically distributed teams on LinkedIn’s TDWI BI and DW Discussion Forum. Here is the entire thread.) I’ve been...
View Article“Being” Agile vs. “Doing” Agile
In June, 2010 The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) published my article entitled “Being” Agile vs. “Doing” Agile as part of their “This Week in BI” series. Although I wrote the article for the Agile...
View ArticleAgile Leadership and Motivation
Agile leadership is sometimes portrayed as, “Buy pizza and get out of the way.” Or, “Empowering teams to be more self-organizing and self-managing.” Neither of these descriptions is particularly...
View ArticleEvolving Excellent Design
Design excellence is critical to the success of Agile Analytics. The right design choices will help minimize technical debt, facilitate adapting to changes, improve quality, and provide the agile team...
View ArticleAgile Data Modeling: Evolving Toward Excellence
TDWI’s BI This Week newsletter ran this short article on June 22, 2011, and I’ve included it below. It provides a glimpse at the important technical practices that enable you to safely evolve your data...
View ArticleOrganizational Friction Impedes Agility
Agile adoption for data warehouse and BI is on the rise. Agile Analytics can shorten development cycle time, improve quality, and help ensure that you build the right BI solutions for business decision...
View ArticleCuring the Common Hangover
The following post was originally published by the Cutter Consortium as an e-mail advisor for the Data Insight and Social BI practice in December, 2011. Hence, the reference to the holiday season....
View ArticleTreating Your BI Initiative Like an Entrepreneurial Startup
The following article was originally published by TDWI in the May 15, 2012 issue of BI This Week. Startups know that what customers say they want isn’t necessarily what they want. The same principle is...
View ArticleThe BI McTriple: 3 Business Intelligence Lessons from Cheezburger
The following is a guest post written by Michael Koploy, an analyst for Software Advice. This post is a summary of a more in-depth interview that Michael conducted with Loren Bast, Director of Business...
View ArticleAre We Carpenters, Cabinet Makers, or Furniture Makers?
In September, 2012 I had the honor of presenting the keynote address at The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) World Conference in Boston. Here is the abstract and video recording of that presentation....
View ArticleWherescape CEO Michael Whitehead Interview
Check out this TDWI BI This Week interview of Michael Whitehead by Linda Briggs. Michael is a friend of mine and the very astute CEO of Wherescape, a company that produces tools that enable agile data...
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Scaling Agile Data Warehousing
It has been far too long since my last post, and frankly I’ve been up to my ears in alligators in my new role as director of Agile Analytics at ThoughtWorks and haven’t had enough time to write. So,...
View ArticleTen Mistakes to Avoid in Agile BI Transformation
This article was first published by TDWI (The Data Warehousing Institute) in May 2013 as part of its Ten Mistakes series. See the original article here if you are a TDWI member. It’s been said that...
View ArticleTreating Your BI Project Like an Entrepreneurial Startup
Startups know that what customers say they want isn’t necessarily what they want. The same principle is critical to the success of your BI project. As a proponent of agile data warehousing and...
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Do Less by Committing to More
By Lynn Winterboer and Ken Collier (first published in TDWI BI This Week on July 30, 2013) Agile leaders focus more on the continuous delivery of high-priority value to business stakeholders and less...
View ArticleProfiles of disruptive thinkers – Jim Highsmith
If you’ve been following me, then you probably know that I consider Jim Highsmith my mentor. Jim is one of the 17 signers of the Agile Manifesto, a prolific author and blogger, and a truly original...
View ArticleAgile DW/BI Testing – Just Get Started!
by Ken Collier and Lynn Winterboer This article was first published in TDWI BI This Week on July 9, 2013 When quality and testing is moved up front on a project, everyone enjoys a higher quality...
View Article7 Dimensions of Agile Analytics
by Ken Collier This article is a reprint from ThoughtWorks’ Big Data Analytics Insights. Agile Analytics is a blend of sophisticated analytics techniques, agile delivery methods and lean learning...
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