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June 13, 2002

The Dream Team

Assembling a team with the right mix of hard and soft skills for your business intelligence project is critical to its success

By Patti Bunker

Continued from Page 1

In addition, you will want people on your team who can make pragmatic decisions. Here's a definition of pragmatic that I really like: guided by practical experience and observation rather than theory. To have people on your team who are pragmatic by this definition means that they're practical and will strive to find the best possible simple solution to a problem. They know how to apply theory effectively, whether technological or analytic, and avoid getting bogged down in the newest, coolest thing when it doesn't add anything to the project or support the long-term vision.

Finally, being flexible means not being married to one design or solution. If there's a better way to get the job done that helps the overall team meet its goals, then that's what needs to happen.

5. Work as a Team

Good, high-performance BI teams tend to be cross-functional, and the lines tend to blur between roles. The most sought after team members can wear several different hats and will gladly do so if it means the project will be successful.

Part of being a good team player means that, although members feel personal ownership for their specific tasks, they should share ownership of the entire project. You want to avoid people who want to "own" data or processes.

By owning, I am referring to "unconditionally controlling." It's one thing to accept responsibility and quite another to insist that no one gets to the data without going through that person. Minifiefdoms happen with people I affectionately refer to as having the "DBA gene." Some of my best and dearest friends are DBAs, and I've seen many good DBAs become great BI team members.

With that said, we've all worked with teammates who let nothing pass without their blessing and fingerprint on it. (In my career, these folks just happened to be mostly DBAs — hence the term.) If you think about it, part of the reason for creating a data warehouse is to integrate information silos — letting them be created within the warehouse is very counterproductive.

One client related the story of a DBA on a project who refused to sit at a conference table with the team during meetings, preferring instead to sit by himself in the corner of the room. I suspect the other members of the team didn't feel he had strong team ownership!

6. Communicate Effectively

Your most valuable (and sought after) team members will have great written and verbal communication skills. Written communication skills help create good, usable project documentation, design documents, status reports, and internal memos.

Verbal communication skills are perhaps more important. Good, cross-functional team members are probably working on overlapping tasks with other team members. Therefore, there needs to be thorough, professional communication between team members at all times.

In addition, to be truly successful, a BI project requires constant communication between the technical team and the business areas that will be affected. BI team members need to discuss issues and concerns with the business users without overwhelming them with technical details. In other words, know your audience.

Once the application is complete or near completion, team members should participate in training the business users. Again, having good communication without getting bogged down in technical terms is key here.

Another facet of good communication skills is your team members' ability to work effectively in what often becomes a heated environment. Can your candidates hold their own in a major skirmish when they know they're right? Can they make their points clearly, succinctly, and without offending anyone? Do they know when to back down for the good of the team?

One thing to keep in mind is that your team is almost certainly going to find problems — probably major problems — in source systems or processes. Bringing these up is always dicey, and you want to make sure your team can stay cool under fire.

Frequently, politics are involved. Whose numbers are right? Whose data is dirty? Whose design is better? Handling these minefields with skill and aplomb will tax team members with even the greatest of communication skills. If you have a team member who's adept in these situations, you can defuse a lot of confrontations early.

A case in point: One of my coworkers recently participated on a project to partially replace an existing data mart. The developer of the original mart was very defensive; certain the new team was making unnecessary changes that would mess up his work.

Recognizing this attitude as a potential problem, my coworker made an extra effort to assure the first developer that the new project team would leverage as much of his work as possible and bring him in as part of the team to make the changes. He also went out of his way to praise the original work to his manager and to the original developer's manager. It would have been easier for my coworker to just bulldoze ahead — he had the authority and backing to make his changes. Instead, he took the time to work with his erstwhile adversary and come to a conclusion that satisfied everyone involved.

Finally, your top-notch team members can be helpful when you invariably need to grow your team. Having team members with solid communication skills is critical during the interview process. Plus, they can be a big help serving as coaches and mentors as your team expands.

7. Possess Solid Requirements Gathering Skills

Last, but certainly not least, good requirements gathering skills are a major benefit. Each team member doesn't need to be a full-time business analyst, but everyone on the project will be involved in some way with gathering requirements. Why? Look back at the earlier points — cross-functional, pragmatic team members with good communication skills that have the big picture in mind are bound to be talking to users on a regular basis. They need to be able to process the comments and concerns, decide if changes are required, help determine if they're in scope, and when and if they'll be addressed. In addition, the iterative nature of BI application development means a lot of presentations to the users followed by figuring out where to go next. In some ways, everyone on the team is involved in requirements gathering.

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The Perfect Candidate

Okay, now add these requirements to your existing laundry list of technical skills. You're probably saying, "There's no way I can find someone with all of these skills!"

Although it's rare that someone will fit all your needs exactly, keep these requirements in mind, and you may be surprised. You might find perfect candidates from outside the organization or tailor-made folks already within your company. In many ways, these soft skills are just as important as your technical laundry list. Not everyone on your team will fit every category — just work toward getting the best mix that you can, and you'll be pleasantly surprised at the results.

Patti Bunker [feedback@gr.com] is the BI practice manager for the Atlanta branch of Greenbrier & Russel Inc., a systems integration and training firm specializing in BI solutions. She has 17 years of application development experience and has been involved in developing the overall BI practice at G&R.