The Teksouth Enterprise Consulting (TEC) Group

The Internet has redefined people’s expectations about information. Access to information has become easier, faster and most importantly, more flexible. The search engine discovery interface in many ways is the ultimate ad hoc reporting tool. Over the past year, companies have been scrambling to imitate that interface on the desktop and even combine the two. Why is it so popular, even considering that the results of current search engines are not particularly accurate? The answer is simple; the user is in total control of the discovery process. A new generation of BI capabilities is bringing that user control to more sophisticated report generation tools with much more accurate results. This is Agile BI.

From the developer’s perspective, instead of making assumptions we use our relationship with the end users to let them drive and validate logic from their perspective. Agile BI is focused on utilizing ad hoc capabilities to drive discovery and determine optimization strategies. Agile provides the user toolset for influencing the rest of the Agile Data Architecture. Based upon user queries and activities, we gather metadata, optimize caches and determine cross domain mapping strategies. Some have referred to this capability as “Operational BI,” however that doesn’t capture the context of what’s really happening across the entire architecture. Agile BI is not merely another channel for managing Business Intelligence, it is a new way to view the entire practice of BI. This best practice assumes that BI is of value to the whole enterprise, not merely 10% of it. This practice also assumes that for BI to work the end user becomes a partner in the development process. Most importantly, this is where we gain most of our insights on the overall performance of our Agile Data Architecture.