Frank Buytendijk Blog

What puzzles me deeply is that so much of the focus of BI remains concerned with the technology infrastructure and dashboard bells and whistles. This is seen most clearly when a new enterprise application or business process is being introduced, and you hear the almost dismissive assertion made that "it will integrate with you DWH", or that it will "plug in to your management dashboard". And "we'll scope for, let's say, 20 reports to be built".

Later, he continues:

First, get real and get connected to your business. You are not delivering 20 reports, you are delivering information that will hopefully help your business users may really good decisions, impact the bottom line and keep your job safe.

I very much agree with that "building 20 reports" is not a true deliverable. You point out that you think we all miss the point, and with the examples you show how that applies to the IT world. 

There is another "we" as well: "the business". Business has bargained a great deal with IT: business isn't responsible for a thing. IT needs to write the business case for IT projects. Wait a minute... isn't it the business who requires something, which IT needs to support? Who should write the business case then? And we all know that most returns of investment  do not come from putting in a new system, but come from using the system. Why is it then that IT is always responsible for resources, deadlines, budgets, quality and other commitments, why don't I see many project plans that describe how "the business" is responsible for using the system?

Business complains about IT, but the business has put in the controls that drive IT to dysfunctional behavior themselves.

Major League Duhhh...