Self Service Business Intelligence A Workbook

Description
Self-service BI enables users to answer their own questions on their own schedule. This tool makes it easier for users to analyze data and get the information they want, when they want it.

Self-Service Business Intelligence:
A Workbook
Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
SELF-SERVICE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: A WORKBOOK
Introduction step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4 step 5 step 6 Summary Personas
Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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Table of Contents
Introduction .........................................................................................................................................
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Step 1: Determine if Self-Service BI is Right for You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Answer Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Step 2: Defne Your Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Questions for Your Business-side Project Sponsor: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Questions for the BI Project Owner: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Step 3: Understand Your Users’ Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Create User Personas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Persona Example #1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Persona Example #2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Persona Example #3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Help! I don’t know all the information! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Questions to Ask Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Step 4: Determine What Levels of Self-Service BI Are Appropriate for You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Level 1: Managed Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Level 2: Interactive Report Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Level 3: Collaborative Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Level 4: Self-Service Analytics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Level 5: Self-Service Report Authoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Step 5: Decide Your Self-Service BI Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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DIY Self-Service BI (“code your own”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Open Source Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Commercial Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Step 6: Think About Technical Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Data Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Metadata – Needs Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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The Managed BI Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Managed Reporting – Needs Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Persona Worksheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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About Jaspersoft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Table of Contents
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Introduction step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4 step 5 step 6 Summary
SELF-SERVICE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: A WORKBOOK Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Personas
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Introduction
The drill is so familiar. Business users need answers to questions; they need to make
sense of data, so they ask their IT departments for specifc reports.
Then they wait. And wait. Sometimes for days.
When they fnally receive their request, the data is out-of-date, and the report may not
be what they want. Even so, they make decisions based on this stale or incomplete
information, impacting their company’s productivity, proftability and sometimes even
its survival.
It doesn’t have to be that way, not with self-service business
intelligence (BI).
Self-service BI enables users to answer their own questions on their own schedule. This tool
makes it easier for users to analyze data and get the information they want, when they want it.
Self-service BI means users can analyze the full breadth and depth of data in a timely fashion.
The result? Generally more accurate, more insightful decisions. Happier users. Reduced IT backlog.
And often increased profts and reduced costs.
Good results indeed. But self-service BI is not for everyone. First you need to decide whether this
tool can help you.
This workbook will help you make that decision, guide you through the other considerations
for successfully implementing self-service BI, and help you develop a plan. If you’re a software
vendor and you’re building analytics into your product, please refer to Jaspersoft’s document
“The Workbook for Embedded BI.”
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Introduction step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4 step 5 step 6 Summary
SELF-SERVICE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: A WORKBOOK Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Personas
Step 1: Determine if
Self-Service BI
is Right for You
First, it’s important to know if self-service BI can help you and your users. This little quiz
can help.
Yes No
1
Is your corporate culture becoming increasingly data driven (as opposed to
“gut driven”)?
2
Are your users dissatisfed with the reports they get? Do your users accept
existing reports even though better reports would beneft their work?
3
Has feedback about the reports dropped of? Is it likely your users have just
given up getting anything better so they’ve stopped asking?
4 Could many of your users beneft from creating their own reports?
5 Do many of your users need information faster? Is time critically important?
6 Do many of your users need to determine “why” something is happening?
7
Do your users simply need minor changes to existing reports, (e.g., re-
formatting, creating one-time reports) that they would like to take care of
themselves?
8
Is your IT department backlogged with requests for those types of minor
changes?
9 Do the reports or analyses that users receive raise new questions?
10
Have some business users become your analytics “experts” even though
that is not really their job?
11
Are your users already using other self-service applications, such as CRM or
Helpdesk?
12
Do your users have lots of applications or tools with completely diferent
reporting and analysis functions?
13
Are your users exporting data into Excel and then formatting or analyzing
the results from there?
TOTAL: #Yes #No
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Introduction step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4 step 5 step 6 Summary
SELF-SERVICE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: A WORKBOOK Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Personas
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Answer Notes
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3
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Step 1: Determine if
Self-Service BI
is Right for You
If you answered “yes” to fve or more
of the questions from the quiz, your
organization will likely beneft from
self-service BI.
To learn more about WHY answering
“yes” to these questions indicates
a need for self-service BI, see the
“Answer Notes”.
Otherwise, move on to Step 2
where you can identify your
main goals.
Business is increasingly data driven. People need to be able to fnd the straightforward
correlations within the data that might not be obvious. And the rise of social media and
greater sophistication of CRM applications are intensifying the amount of data that
needs to be analyzed.
Do you know why your users are dissatisfed? Is it the type of data they can or cannot
access? The timing? The formatting? It’s important to fnd that out. Right now, they’re
probably asking their colleagues or IT for help. Self-service BI might address the source of
these issues.
Getting few complaints is not necessarily good. Generally users complain at frst
but, if they feel ignored, they settle into silent acceptance. Even if they have stopped
complaining, their productivity is probably lower than it could be, and they could
become resentful. So the lack of complaints does not necessarily mean things are great.
It might indicate that users have given up.
Most users like to generate their own reports, and are used to doing it for virtually
everything outside of the company walls. (Many use Microsoft Excel to do this.) So
it’s good to fnd out whether they want more control, and if so, whether they want a
substantive change (such as a new row or column of data) or merely variations on the
theme (such as sort order, or fltering of data). Enabling users to prepare their own reports
would make it easier on them and you.
continued next page
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Introduction step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4 step 5 step 6 Summary
SELF-SERVICE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: A WORKBOOK Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Personas
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Answer Notes
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7
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Step 1: Determine if
Self-Service BI
is Right for You
Business users often make operational decisions several times a day. To do so, they need to
see the supporting data right away. Too often users need help from IT to get the answers
they want. Even the best report usually won’t be adequate because of the time delay in
getting it developed in the frst place. A signifcant time lag usually results in a more naïve
analysis, one based on a gut reaction instead of what might be the “real reason.”
You don’t need self-service if the metrics are extremely well-defned (e.g., a maintenance
report on a machine). But self-service BI comes into play when you get into reasons, when
you’re trying to understand results not just measure them. And, in that regard, many
users want to flter the data just to see what pertains to them.
Users don’t want to get in line or ask for help simply to change the title of a report or the
order of the columns. While some will enlist IT to make these minor changes, many users
will just use the reporting and analysis tools less (unless forced to use them).
Face it. Your IT department has to support a broad range of users and initiatives, from
people who just want a report of the basics to those who really want to slice and dice the
data. The IT department can’t neglect any group. If the users could handle the majority of
their reporting needs (instead of the typical minority), your IT department would be free
to handle many more important matters.
continued next page
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Introduction step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4 step 5 step 6 Summary
SELF-SERVICE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: A WORKBOOK Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Personas
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Step 1: Determine if
Self-Service BI
is Right for You
Often one answer leads to more questions. With self-service BI, users can get that much
farther along on their own. They’ll get closer to what they really need, and will also be
clearer about what they need when they do ask IT for help.
When business users become data-analysis experts, they help foster data-driven
decision making and an analytic mindset across the board. That’s the good news. But as
these data-savvy users become the “go-to” resources for strategic insight for the entire
organization, the demands on their time can become overwhelming. Thus these business
users must have tools to allow them to easily share their insight with others.
If your users are accustomed to other “self-service” applications, they will be annoyed
when their analysis and reporting is not also self-service.
A lot of software includes rudimentary reporting capabilities, which are typically limited
because they are not usually a core design element of the software. Also, if your users are
already dealing with several reporting tools, they may have reached a saturation point. If
there is no easy way for your users to gain the insights available from bringing diferent
sources of information together from more than one tool, you now have an argument to
centralize your reporting and analysis across several applications.
If you don’t make it easy for users to personalize reports with insights, such as medians
and weighted averages or apply their department’s business metrics and share the
resulting reports, they’ll resort to Excel. And spreadsheet reports often take on a life of
their own.
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Introduction step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4 step 5 step 6 Summary
SELF-SERVICE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: A WORKBOOK Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Personas
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Step 2: Defne Your
Objectives
Since you’re still reading, you’ve probably decided that self-service BI is worth
investigating further. Let’s take it down a level.
What do you hope to achieve by self-service BI?
How might self-service BI support the overall goals of your
organization?
For your project sponsors and users, high-level benefts might include reduced time
to insight, better decision making and higher satisfaction. For your IT department, the
benefts could include a reduced workload, and the time and budget to tackle higher-
value projects such as moving the infrastructure to the cloud.
At this point, you might not be super-clear on your goals and expected benefts. That’s
fne. This section of the workbook is designed to help you clarify your goals, because the
more precise you are about your goals, the more likely your project is to succeed.
We recommend approaching this as a two-step process. First ask your project
sponsors — those who own the business side benefts that your SSBI will render
— about their goals. Based on their input, articulate your self-service BI goals.
As you proceed, we recommend referring back to this
section often, to remind yourself of your main goals.
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Introduction step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4 step 5 step 6 Summary
SELF-SERVICE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: A WORKBOOK Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Personas
Step 2: Defne Your
Objectives
Questions for your business-side project sponsor:
1 What are the top 3 business goals that self-service BI might help you attain?
A.
B.
C.
2 How important is self-service BI to attaining these goals?
Absolutely required A pure nice-to-have
5 4 3 2 1
Goal A
Goal B
Goal C
3 Why do you think self-service BI will help achieve these goals?
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SELF-SERVICE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: A WORKBOOK Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Personas
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1 What’s the single biggest goal you want to achieve via self-service BI?
2
How will you measure your progress toward your goals? Be as specifc as possible;
include numerical goals and timeframes.
For example, a goal could be reducing the IT backlog for reports by 15% within six
months. Or, increasing customer usage by 10% in that same timeframe. Or improving
customer satisfaction ratings by 25%.
A. Achieve by (date)
B. Achieve by (date)
C. Achieve by (date)
3 Are there any secondary or less-measurable objectives?
4 What are the most important benefts you expect to realize with self-service BI?
Questions for the BI project owner:
Step 2: Defne Your
Objectives
With the above information from the
business side sponsor, answer the
questions below from the perspective
of the technical sponsor. It is critically
important to make sure that your goals
(as a potential implementer of BI) are
in line with the goals of the users and
sponsors of your BI project.
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Introduction step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4 step 5 step 6 Summary
SELF-SERVICE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: A WORKBOOK Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Personas
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Step 2: Defne Your
Objectives
Rank your expected benefts from self-service BI:
Choose the three most
common benefts that are most
important to you and rank
them 1, 2, or 3. This will help
you to guide your project.
Improved Decision Making
The ability to support analysis for a data-driven company
Faster decisions (also known as “business ability”)
More accurate decisions that are driven more by data and less by “gut”
New business insights (e.g., not just that sales are up, but also where they’re up and why)
Reduced costs by eliminating separate analytic or decision-making tools
Improved communication and teamwork, as everyone receives the same information
Increased User Satisfaction
More satisfed users because of the “instant gratifcation” of getting their needed
information quickly
Increased internal customer satisfaction because of faster response times
Increased Efciencies
Reduction or elimination of IT backlog of requests for minor customizations to reports,
or for one-of reports
Faster turnaround of more complex reports
Decreased dependence on professional report developers
Dramatic reduction in the number of reports that are managed by IT
Reduced Costs
Less reliance on technical resources for customization
Less time creating customer reports, visualizations, data marts, and the like
Other
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SELF-SERVICE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: A WORKBOOK Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Step 3: Understand Your
Users’ Requirements
Now that you’ve outlined your goals from self-service BI, let’s
move on to your users.
Without enthusiastic users, your application and self-service BI initiative won’t produce
the desired results. And, to make your users enthusiastic, you need to understand what
they need from self-service BI.
You probably have to satisfy diferent types of users, with diferent goals, requirements,
and expectations.
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Introduction step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4 step 5 step 6 Summary Personas
SELF-SERVICE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: A WORKBOOK Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Step 3: Understand Your
Users’ Requirements
According to TDWI (The Data Warehouse Institute), the two major
classifcations of BI users are casual users and power users.
Casual Users (also called “business users”) – “Casual users are primarily
information consumers, using information in their jobs.”
1
They generally
include people who make business decisions based on information
obtained from reports or analyses by others. Casual users might tweak
these reports or analyses slightly (such as fltering the data to a specifc
date range, or adding a chart). However, they generally work with
something created by someone else. About 80% of business users are
casual users
2
, including customers, executives, managers, and non-
technical employees.
Casual users often need minor formatting changes (e.g., fonts, colors).
They like to be able to sort, reorder, and hide columns. The Big Boss Bill
persona featured in this workbook is an example of a casual user.
!
1
The Secrets of Self-Service BI, by Wayne Eckerson. TechTarget.
http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/eckerson/archives/2011/01/the_secrets_of.php
2
Beyond Reporting: Delivering Insights With Next Generation Analytics.
http://tdwi.org/webcasts/2009/03/beyond-reporting-delivering-insights-with-next-generation-analytics.aspx
(Figure 1)
CASUAL USERS
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SELF-SERVICE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: A WORKBOOK Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Step 3: Understand Your
Users’ Requirements
POWER USERS
!
Power Users (often called analysts, data scientists, Excel junkies, or “number
crunchers”) – These people dig deeply into data to fnd the answers to important
business questions. These information producers are often found in the line of
business. Power users, who represent about 20% of the total
2
, create reports,
dashboards and models for themselves and casual users. They like to drill down to
sub-reports, exchange the rows and columns (“pivot” the data), and create their
own reports and analyses from scratch, against a simplifed view of data source(s).
Business Analysts – These data- and process-savvy
business users identify trends, solve problems and
develop plans. They usually live on the business side
of the house (not IT). They answer a lot of one-of
questions, and spend a fair amount of time assembling
materials for others to present at meetings and the like.
Business analysts are good at using the tools like Excel
and OLAP, although they are not necessarily trained
in statistics. They do not bring as much sophistication
to the analysis as a scientist would. Betty, our persona
included in this workbook, is a business analyst.
Departmental Super Users – Brand
managers, operations managers and
others tasked with making decisions.
That’s their job. But, because they’re
technically savvy, these users end
up creating ad hoc reports for their
colleagues. It’s not really their
responsibility, but it often takes
a lot of their time. Serious Steve,
resembles our departmental super
user persona in this workbook.
2
Beyond Reporting: Delivering Insights With Next Generation Analytics.
http://tdwi.org/webcasts/2009/03/beyond-reporting-delivering-insights-with-next-generation-analytics.aspx
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SELF-SERVICE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: A WORKBOOK Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
There are blank persona charts at the end of this workbook to
help you create your personas.
It’s best to create no more than three or four personas. You need
to focus on the users who are most important to your project
achieving its goals.
Step 3: Understand Your
Users’ Requirements
Create User Personas.
To make sure you meet the needs of your users, it’s good to develop a “persona”
for each type. A persona is a fctional character who represents a class of users,
refecting their typical motivations, goals, skill level, experience, and attitudes.
Here are some examples.
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Persona Example #1
NAME & PERSONA TYPE
Big Boss Bill
Casual User
AGE
49
JOB TITLE
VP Operations
TECHNICAL COMFORT
Bill is a savvy Internet and computer user, but he can’t create reports.
MOTIVATIONS
What is he trying to accomplish?
Bill wants to make sure that the company is running as planned. As his
title indicates, he is concerned with the entire operation, including sales,
manufacturing, and distribution. Bill wants to be able to highlight things like
forecasts versus production, and outliers. He wants to get enough information
quickly so that he still has time to act.
FRUSTRATIONS
Bill gets a boatload of reports, but they often don’t give him the information he
really needs, the “why,” because some content is not easily accessible. He often asks
IT to crunch numbers, and then waits….
BILL’S IDEAL EXPERIENCE
Bill wants actionable, semi-automatic information that he can flter and drill down
when he needs more data. He wants to be able to ask the “why” questions and
quickly get answers.
He won’t do a lot of analysis or learn the intricacies of a new reporting tool, but he
needs to be able to get answers to basic questions on the spot without needing
help. Immediate information is important to him.
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Persona Example #2
NAME & PERSONA TYPE
Betty the Business Analyst
Data Analyst
AGE
28
JOB TITLE
Data or Business Analyst
TECHNICAL COMFORT
Betty’s a bright woman who majored in business in college. She’s not a statistics
person or coder, but she’s good at Excel and PowerPoint. She knows the various
systems within the company and has a good relationship with the IT department.
MOTIVATIONS
What is she trying to accomplish?
Betty is a manager of special projects. She needs to analyze data, to identify trends
and the like. Probably half her time is spent on routine, packaged reports. Once she
identifes interesting data, she would like the report to be automated so she can
run it on a regular basis.
FRUSTRATIONS
Betty spends a lot of time tracking down data. She is asked to explain the reason,
the “why” something is happening. However, she might not have the data and tools
she needs to answer the question.
BETTY’S IDEAL EXPERIENCE
When asked a question, she would love to have an obvious starting point to get the
data. Betty wants easy-to-use (but not simplistic) tools to explore data and identify
new relationships and trends. Once she identifes something interesting, she wants
to be able to create her own report—without waiting for someone else to help—to
monitor a newly found insight, and then schedule it to run on a regular basis.
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Persona Example #3
NAME & PERSONA TYPE
Serious Steve
Departmental Super User
AGE
38
JOB TITLE
Client services manager
TECHNICAL COMFORT
Steve is comfortable with Excel and knows a little about how to access data.
MOTIVATIONS
What is he trying to accomplish?
Steve is responsible for keeping a group of customers happy. He presents their
metrics at a weekly meeting.
The existing reporting was inadequate, so Steve started creating his own reports,
cutting and pasting information together. Then he started to automate the report
to reduce the tedium and his workload.
His manager was impressed, and now Steve is doing the same for his colleagues.
Instead of reducing his workload, he’s increased it. In efect, the better job he does,
the more work he has to do.
FRUSTRATIONS
The data is not in the shape Steve wants. Usually there is a mistake somewhere,
which he has to clean up. And he does this every single week. Of course, he is
uncertain how useful the reports are anyway since the data is not current.
STEVE’S IDEAL EXPERIENCE
Steve wants to work with up-to-date data, and have his report formatted in his
preferred way, without having to wait for someone to help him.
He wants to be able to create his own reports and visualizations to answer his
questions, without having to know a lot about the data and how the underlying
databases are structured.
He wants to be able to readily and securely share these visualizations and reports
with his management and colleagues.
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1 In what areas of your job do you need access to data, reports, and analyses?
2 What are you trying to accomplish with data analysis and reporting?
3 Are you succeeding? Why or why not?
4 What is missing from your current BI or data-access tools that prevent you from
making better decisions?
5 What data would you like access to that you’re not getting today?” How would
you use them?
continued next page
Now remedy the situation by asking actual users. Briefy
interview them, asking questions such as the following.
Step 3: Understand Your
Users’ Requirements
Help! I don’t know all the
information!
You might not know how
to fll in all the boxes in the
persona tables. That’s fne.
You have identifed gaps in
your knowledge at the right
time, before you even got
started on the project.
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6 Do you get your reports, analyses, or data fast enough? Ideally, how quickly do
you need them?
7 Can you “crunch” the data the way that you want? Why do you want to crunch it
that way?
8 Do you get your reports and analyses in the format you want? Why do you want
that format? Do you alter the format on your own?
Now remedy the situation by asking actual users. Briefy
interview them, asking questions such as the following.
(continued)
Step 3: Understand Your
Users’ Requirements
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Step 4: Determine What
Levels of Self-Service BI
Are Appropriate for You
Next you’ll need to determine what levels of self-service
functionality meet the needs of your personas.
1
There are fve main possibilities:
2
3
4
Managed reporting
Interactive report editing
Collaborative reporting
Self-service analytics (with visualization
capabilities)
5
Self-service reports authoring
These levels overlap
somewhat. Let’s see
how Bill, Steve and
Betty use them.
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Bill sometimes just needs to see some basic information,
for example, last week’s sales divided up by geography and
product line. If Bill can run that report on his own, whenever
he wanted, it would save him a lot of time.
Step 4: Determine What
Levels of Self-Service BI
Are Appropriate for You
Level 1: Managed Reporting
This level contains self-service functionality that has been around in BI platforms for
a while, but you might be missing these capabilities if your BI capabilities are home-
grown or grew out of a specialized application.
Sometimes, just adding the infrastructure and control that the most basic BI
platforms provide can make your users much more efective.
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Step 4: Determine What
Levels of Self-Service BI
Are Appropriate for You
To determine if you need the managed reporting level of
self-service BI, ask yourself if your users need to:
Level 1 of SSBI - Questionnaire
Persona
One
Persona
Two
Persona
Three
Persona
Four
Run reports whenever they want, on-demand?
Share the report output with other people?
Export the report output into the format of
their choice (e.g., Excel)?
Schedule the report to run on a regular basis?
Receive notifcations of new reports via e-mail
or text?
View reports from any device (e.g., computers,
laptops, smartphones, tablets)?
Save multiple versions of their report output to
a central location?
Be assured their reports are secure?
Automatically render diferent versions of
reports, depending on the user’s permissions
(role-based security)?
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Level 2: Interactive Report Editing
With interactive report editing, users can access reports that someone else designed
and make small (but often signifcant) changes to the report’s structure and layout.
They then save those changes so that the adapted report can be re-used and can be
shared with others.
Step 4: Determine What
Levels of Self-Service BI
Are Appropriate for You
Betty, for example, uses a lot of
interactive reports. She loves the
fact that she can sort, flter or add
columns and rows; change the
date range; and the like. She often
drills down into the report so that
she can see elements making up a
sum or an average. Sometimes she
adapts the format to show only a
small subset of the total report,
because this helps her focus on the
items of interest.
Steve also likes adapting
templates. Some of his reports
are dynamic, letting him
override the default values
so that he can, for example,
change the timeframe or
recipient. Among other
benefts, this enables him to
use relative timeframes (e.g.,
the last three months), as well
as absolute ones (e.g., the third
quarter 2012).
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Step 4: Determine What
Levels of Self-Service BI
Are Appropriate for You
Like Betty, Steve saves his changes to be
rerun in the future. The derivative template
may or may not be linked to the source
data, but this approach can assure the
security of the data. If Betty exported her
interactive report to Excel, for example, it
would completely remove the original data
security, including the access permissions.
So there would be no restrictions on the
data others could see.

With interactive report editing, the server
enforces the security. The actual data is
still restricted; access permissions are
enforced. (For example, the VP of Finance
will be able to see all the accounting
information; the line manager may only
get a small subset of that data.) And Steve
is not directly working with the underlying
data, as IT has put a “safety net” around
that through its metadata layer. (More on
the metadata later.)
To determine if you need the interactive report editing
capabilities, ask yourself if your users need to:
Level 2 of SSBI -
Interactive Report Editing
Persona
One
Persona
Two
Persona
Three
Persona
Four
Make minor formatting changes (e.g., the date
format)?
Change the sorting order (which column,
ascending versus descending)?
Change the order or width of columns?
Hide sections or columns?
Reorder columns?
Limit (flter) the report content?
Include user-defned calculations in a column?
Select columns from a list?
Save their default values (e.g., the timeframe,
region)?
Use the adapted report later with the same
changes, (e.g., order of columns, formatting,
fltering)?
continued next page
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To determine if you need the interactive report editing
capabilities, ask yourself if your users need to:
(continued)
Level 2 of SSBI -
Interactive Report Editing
Persona
One
Persona
Two
Persona
Three
Persona
Four
Override the default parameter values?
Run the report on a regular basis?
Use time-based parameters relative to today’s
date (e.g., last week)?
Use absolute time-based parameters (e.g., 3rd
quarter 2012)?
Share the report with people who have diferent
access permissions?
Step 4: Determine What
Levels of Self-Service BI
Are Appropriate for You
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Level 3: Collaborative Reporting
As things get more complex and more analysis is needed, users often need to
annotate cells and drill down to underlying data.
Step 4: Determine What
Levels of Self-Service BI
Are Appropriate for You
This is an incredibly powerful
capability, as Betty and Steve
learn in their weekly meeting
with their boss. They are going
through the reports when
Bill asks Betty about one of
the numbers. She knows an
unusually large sale at the end
of the month skewed those
results. She annotates the cell,
noting that sale.
Steve also notices that a cell gives a
three-day deadline (when deadlines
are usually 30 days). He has the
appropriate permissions, so he drills
down, determines that there was a
data entry error, and fxes it. These
two actions—correcting the source
data and commenting on a report
document—are called “writing back.”
Steve has gone beyond interactive
reporting and into the data itself, but
cannot change the database of record
because IT has protected that with the
metadata layer.
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Level 3 of SSBI –
Collaborative Reporting
Persona
One
Persona
Two
Persona
Three
Persona
Four
Correct the underlying source data?
Comment or annotate the report documents?
Highlight some cells?
Step 4: Determine What
Levels of Self-Service BI
Are Appropriate for You
To determine if you need the ability to do collaborative
reporting, ask yourself if your users need to:
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Level 4: Self-Service Analytics
Sometimes even additional analytics are needed—to identify trends, analyze
meaningful relationships, or answer questions that are not answered by routine
reports. Interactive reports allow limited exploration but sometimes a more full-
featured data exploration tool is needed. Enter self-service analytics.
A self-service analytics solution usually includes something like an analytic grid
(sometimes called an OLAP tool) and perhaps a rich visualization tool. The user can
interact with these tools, dragging and dropping felds onto the horizontal and
vertical axis of the grid, creating hierarchies of data felds, and trying out diferent
types of aggregates. This is basically cross-tab analysis, allowing the user to look at
two or more variables.
Step 4: Determine What
Levels of Self-Service BI
Are Appropriate for You
Super users like Steve generally need this kind of additional capability; they need
to slice and dice data more fully to identify relationships and trends.
For example, Steve might create a hierarchy of regions, exploring what happens
when he makes one category subordinate to another. He might analyze several
variables, noting how the columns and rows interact with each other. He may use
diferent kinds of aggregates (e.g., sum, average), and will often drill down to the
underlying data (and possibly even uncover errors there).
Once he fnds what he’s looking for, he’ll create some “pop-out” charts, which will
illustrate his fndings. These capabilities help him explore broad trends.
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Level 4: Self-Service Analytics
The reports at the previous levels were designed to bubble up certain types of
information, but they are not really designed for discovery. At the self-service
analytics level, there is a lot more fexibility, and the process is much more freeform.
This freedom can help people like Steve fnd answers to questions they might not
have had before.
Step 4: Determine What
Levels of Self-Service BI
Are Appropriate for You
Steve is technical enough to be comfortable with
this line of inquiry because he’s worked with Pivot
Tables in Excel a lot and is familiar with the process.
Also, he is using a drag-and-drop BI interface,
which simplifes things. Others may steer away
from this type of analysis, concerned about its
complexity. However, sometimes even the most
casual user will have a question that will go down
this type of path, because it helps answer the “why.”
Once Steve has fnished his analysis, he generates a colored map to show his boss
(who is a visual kind of guy.) The report highlights geographical diferences.
In doing so, Steve’s moved away from analytics (where he was working with the data
grid) to the visualization level (where he is mainly working directly with the chart).
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Level 4: Self-Service Analytics
This capability is important because so many users are visual. And even non-visual
learners are quickly becoming conditioned to responding to icons and other visual
indicators. Also, we are increasingly becoming a mobile society, and chart-type
visualizations are great for consuming on mobile devices. A lot of people can act
from just the visualization and not drill down to the underlying data. In many cases,
there will not be an underlying report, as the chart will point directly at the data.
Step 4: Determine What
Levels of Self-Service BI
Are Appropriate for You
Steve chooses a colored map for his visualization,
but he had lots of choices. While traditional
visualizations were limited to charts and graphs,
newer types of visualization are becoming popular.
Steve could have used annotated maps, heat maps
(where colors represent individual values in a
matrix) or spark lines (typically a small chart next
to a line of data). Or he could have used icons (e.g.,
an arrow to show movement), color (e.g., red to
highlight outliers) or other visual indicators.
In any case, in preparing his visual Steve is mainly interested in fltering the data
down to specifc transactions. The diference between this and the other levels is how
the data is displayed and how Steve interacts with the data.
Steve e-mails his map to his boss, who views it on his smartphone. Bill is pleased and
commends Steve for the information and insight.
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Step 4: Determine What
Levels of Self-Service BI
Are Appropriate for You
To determine if you need self-service analytics, ask yourself
if your users need to:
Level 4 of SSBI –
Self-Service Analytics
Persona
One
Persona
Two
Persona
Three
Persona
Four
Cross-tab diferent data points (e.g., products
and sales over time) to gain insights?
Easily manipulate data to identify trends and
explore the relationships in the data (e.g.,
change the aggregation metric used in the
intersections)?
Summarize the data and break it down in
diferent ways (“slice and dice”)?
Get a historical view to identify trends?
Access this information through a browser?
Tweak an existing/already designed report?
Create a report from scratch, on their own?
Change the dimension (e.g., a feld, collection of
felds, or rows)?
Change the type of calculation being used (e.g.,
addition, multiplication, division)?
Change dimensions (e.g., geography) on rows or
columns?
continued next page
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Step 4: Determine What
Levels of Self-Service BI
Are Appropriate for You
To determine if you need self-service analytics, ask yourself
if your users need to:
(continued)
Level 4 of SSBI –
Self-Service Analytics
Persona
One
Persona
Two
Persona
Three
Persona
Four
Pivot the data with one click?
Deal with hierarchies in the data (e.g. product
line, geography and sales staf)?
Click on an interactive chart and review the
data?
Work with the chart as the main object?
Use a slider feature to reference a subset of
data?
Drill down on the data levels to access
sub-reports?
Access the information on their smartphones or
other mobile device?
Which device(s)? An iPad or iPhone?
An Android phone?
A Windows phone?
Embed visual cues into their analytics or
reports?
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Level 5: Self-Service Report Authoring
Sometimes it is not enough for users to just modify reports that others created. And
sometimes a self-service analytic tool is not appropriate. Sometimes, you just want
to create your own reports.
Why? So you can run them again and again, without going through all the steps. So
you can be freed from the constraints of someone else’s report.
Step 4: Determine What
Levels of Self-Service BI
Are Appropriate for You
Steve has come to that point. Until now, he has been using reports that IT created. Now
he prepares his own, moderately complex report. He uses the raw building blocks (i.e.,
the data objects that IT set up for this purpose) to create a report from “semi-scratch.”
Steve is pretty talented and his report is okay as is. If the questions were more
complicated, he might ask IT for specifc help, using his report as a prototype. As
it is, IT’s involvement is limited to protecting the data sources through providing a
metadata layer.
Steve runs this report and discusses it with his boss weekly. Based on the insights
generated from the report, his boss changed the distribution of the products. Sales
increased 20% in three months.
Also, now that Steve has deployed his report, Betty is using it as well, modifying it
slightly for her needs. Both Steve and Betty get the info they need, when they need it.
And Steve gets a promotion and a raise.
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Step 4: Determine What
Levels of Self-Service BI
Are Appropriate for You
Would your users beneft from authoring their own reports?
Do they need to:
Level 5 of SSBI –
Self-Service Report authoring
Persona
One
Persona
Two
Persona
Three
Persona
Four
Create their own reports from scratch?
Run the reports multiple times?
Share the reports with others?
Use a web-based tool?
Create something quickly (instead of waiting
for IT)?
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Step 5: Decide Your
Self-Service BI Approach
Look over the items you’ve checked. You probably did not
check everything, but it’s likely that you have a much better
sense now as to what’s important to your personas.
Now you have to decide whether to make your own tool, use an open source tool,
or buy a commercial product. Naturally there are pros and cons. Let’s look at
each option.
DIY Self-Service BI (“code your own”)
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
• Focus: The tool will be totally focused on
your needs.
• Ownership: You will code it and you will
“own” it.
• Cost: You will not have ongoing
subscription fees.
• Independence: You will not be dependent
on any other company.
• Complexity: The technology is really complex,
especially the interactivity.
• Usability: You need it to be easy to use or it
won’t be self-service.
• Performance: It takes considerable efort to
create a product that performs well.
• Future path: It’s inevitable that usage (and
people’s expectations) will increase. Will you
be able to support your proprietary tool on an
ongoing basis?
• Focus: Is developing your own tools the right
use of your company’s resources? Should you
be working on your core business instead?
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Open Source Tools
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
• A rich feature set: Open source tools provide
many capabilities, which you can use as needed.
• Programmability: You’ll probably fnd full APIs.
• Starting point: Open source provides an easy
way to get started with little or no investment.
You don’t have to buy a full-blown solution to
begin a project, and you could probably get the
latest version for each new project.
• No-risk evaluation: You can use the free
software while you learn more about what you
really need.
• Support: It’s important that the open source
product you select has training and support
available. You will have to pay for the support.
• Updates: Also, it’s essential that the company
standing behind the open source tool is
committed enough to continue developing it.
• Limited capabilities: The main disadvantage
of open source tools is that they might not
have all the capabilities you need.
• Potential lack of scalability: Sometimes the
open source stack cannot deal with larger
volumes of users. Although you don’t want to
get more features than you need, make sure
your chosen solution is not a dead end.
Step 5: Decide Your
Self-Service BI Approach
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Commercial Tools
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
• A full feature set: Commercial products have
comprehensive capabilities.
• Support: You’ll have a company standing
behind you for training and support.
• Future proofng: The vendor should be
committed enough to continue to develop
the tool.
• Security: The metadata layer is typically
stronger than in open source tools.
• Leading-edge tools: Certain capabilities,
such as interactive charting, will only be
found in commercial products. (Limitations
vary by vendor.)
• Expense: You’ll have to pay for the tool.
However, prices have dropped dramatically,
making commercial tools more cost-efective
for many companies.
• Future proofng: If the tool is 100%
proprietary, you will be in serious trouble
if that vendor goes out of business. (If the
vendor has both an open source and a
commercial version, the open source tool
would probably still be available.)
Step 5: Decide Your
Self-Service BI Approach
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!
The metadata layer provides a “user-friendly,” cleaned-up view of the data. The metadata
hides the database complexity, making it easy for people to use and interact with the
data. The metadata makes it appear that it is one data source, and keeps the data safe
by keeping users from accessing the data directly. By assuring the security of the data,
the metadata layer makes self-service BI possible. It also assures that, if your source data
changes, your reports will not be afected.
Step 6: Think About
Technical Considerations
Your plan for self-service BI cannot be decided by functionality alone. You also
need to think about how whatever you do will ft in with your key data sources and
technical infrastructure.
Data Management
Are you concerned:
• About users creating queries that could bring down the system?
• About them having access directly against the operational data or data
warehouse?
• That you’ll have to rewrite the reports if the data changes?
You should be concerned about such things, because databases are complex,
security is paramount, and performance is critical.
Enter the metadata layer, which is essential to supporting self-service reporting.
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!
Among other advantages, the metadata:
• Cleans up the data.
• Specifes the default formatting.
• Specifes how it will handle data issues, like multiple, disparate data
sources coming together.
• Helps you maintain a clean interface even if the data sources are going
through “trauma” (e.g., a company merger or acquisition).
Step 6: Think About
Technical Considerations
In short, the metadata layer assures the employees use
the data properly and that it meets the standards for
your company.
A good metadata layer means that your super users can self-service to a great
extent, without dealing with the database complexity. Without a metadata layer,
you will be restricted to the most basic data sources.
The IT department needs to design the metadata layer. They can “put a fence”
around the data, restricting access to assure security. The metadata keeps users
from doing anything dumb, and assures they can’t bring down the database. (A
serious business, indeed).
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SELF-SERVICE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: A WORKBOOK Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
To help you come to terms with the metadata, ask yourself:
Step 6: Think About
Technical Considerations
Metadata – Needs Questionnaire Yes No
1 Do you have multiple data sources?
2 Do you have both relational and non-relational data sources?
3 Did they come from diferent organizations (e.g., a merger)?
4 Is all your data in English?
5 Do you use Big Data sources, such as Hadoop or MongoDB?
6
Will you probably need to incorporate more data sources (e.g., social
media) in the future?
7
Does your data need to be cleaned, such as normalizing country codes
or eliminating blank records?
8
Are you concerned that users could trigger queries that will tie up the
database for extended amounts of time?
9
Are you concerned that users will create queries that make no sense or
don’t yield valid business insights?
10
Are you worried that users will not use the many data sources and
structures appropriately?
11
Do you have sensitive data that you want to let some users (but not
others) query?
12 Do you use (or plan to use) data virtualization?
!
The good news is that the
metadata layer can be built up a
little at a time. You can design this
architecture in bite-size pieces
for when you need self-service
reporting. The data objects can also
handle security based on the user.
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SELF-SERVICE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: A WORKBOOK Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
The Managed BI Server
To get a better idea of your technical needs, ask yourself if your users:
Step 6: Think About
Technical Considerations
Managed Reporting – Needs Questionnaire Yes No
1
Need their own area to store their own reports and access them
rapidly?
2
Want to share reports and information with colleagues without
e-mailing?
3 Need to access reports on their smartphones, laptops or tablets?
4 Use web-based tools a lot?
5 Handle a dozen or more reports?
6
Want to store the results of running reports (populated with data),
and share them?
7 Serve many other users?
!
Obviously, managing all the diferent users, reports and data sources involved in self-service business
intelligence requires a robust BI server. The server needs to be high-performance and confgured
to provide the self-service BI capabilities (e.g., to enable interactivity, enforce security and access
permissions). Security is especially important if you have sensitive data or users outside the company
(e.g., customers, an independent sales force).
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Summary
You have come a long way. Specifcally:
1
2
3
4
5
6
You have clarifed your objectives and decided that self-service BI is
right for you.
You have an idea of the benefts you can expect from self-service BI.
You understand the diferences of the fve basic types of self-service BI.
You understand your users and their needs and wants. You know that
one size does NOT ft all.
You’ve considered the diferent types of BI solutions (e.g., DIY, open
source and commercial).
You have an idea of the technical considerations, including the need
for metadata, for ofering self-service BI.
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Summary You clearly think ahead, and have an idea of your company’s
needs now and in the future. You have demonstrated your
commitment to delivering the right amount of information and
right set of capabilities to the right users.
In short, you’re well on your way to implementing a self-service
BI tool. In a world where information is the new currency, you are
making it possible for your organization to generate the kind of
insights that can assure its success.
Congratulations. Let us know if we can help you in any way.
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Personas
NAME & PERSONA TYPE
PHOTO
AGE
JOB TITLE
TECHNICAL COMFORT
MOTIVATIONS
FRUSTRATIONS
HIS/HER IDEAL EXPERIENCE
Persona Worksheet “A”
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Personas
NAME & PERSONA TYPE
PHOTO
AGE
JOB TITLE
TECHNICAL COMFORT
MOTIVATIONS
FRUSTRATIONS
HIS/HER IDEAL EXPERIENCE
Persona Worksheet “B”
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Personas
NAME & PERSONA TYPE
PHOTO
AGE
JOB TITLE
TECHNICAL COMFORT
MOTIVATIONS
FRUSTRATIONS
HIS/HER IDEAL EXPERIENCE
Persona Worksheet “C”
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Introduction step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4 step 5 step 6 Summary
SELF-SERVICE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: A WORKBOOK Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Personas
NAME & PERSONA TYPE
PHOTO
AGE
JOB TITLE
TECHNICAL COMFORT
MOTIVATIONS
FRUSTRATIONS
HIS/HER IDEAL EXPERIENCE
Persona Worksheet “D”
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Introduction step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4 step 5 step 6 Summary Personas
Copyright ©2013. Jaspersoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
49
About Jaspersoft
Jaspersoft empowers millions of people every day to make faster decisions by bringing
them timely, actionable data inside their apps and business processes. Its embeddable,
cost-efective reporting and analytics platform allows anyone to quickly self serve
and get the answers they need and scales architecturally and economically to reach
everyone. Thanks to a community that is hundreds-of-thousands strong, Jaspersoft’s
commercial open source software has been downloaded millions of times and is used
to create the intelligence inside hundreds of thousands of apps and business processes.
Jaspersoft is a privately held company with ofces around the world. For more
information visit http://www.jaspersoft.com and http://community.jaspersoft.com
Learn More
See how companies have successfully deployed Jaspersoft BI solutions and are
extending the value and performance of their data. Visit our Solutions Showcase page
at http://www.jaspersoft.com/embedded-bi. Learn why customers choose Jaspersoft as
the Intelligence Inside their apps and business processes here:
http://www.jaspersoft.com/why-us
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