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October 1, 2003

Ventana Research Product Assessment Guide for Performance Management

More than 60 products scored for their ability to meet business requirements

by Mark Smith

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Ventana Research DecisionCycle Project Methodology

The DecisionCycle methodology includes an eight-step project management process for BI and performance management initiatives. Ventana Research designed the DecisionCycle to address the usually separate and critical business and IT issues that put these projects at risk. We designed he Ventana Research Product Assessment Guide for Performance Management to be used with the Ventana Research DecisionCycle. The Product Assessment Guide uses criteria defined in the PerformanceCycle discussed in preceding sections of this report.

Many BI, reporting, and dashboard projects fail to reach their full potential because they don't use a methodology to match the right technology to meet the business users' needs. Applying the right software is a critical step in understanding how to leverage information to gain insight and improve productivity and effectiveness throughout your organization.

Here's a quick overview of the Ventana Research DecisionCycle Methodology:

1. Define business goals. Define the mission of the business project by answering the following: What are the specific goals and desired benefits for this project? The goals must relate to strategy and plans and how they link people and key performance indicators.
2. Define business requirements. Define the business requirements to achieve the business goal (the specific items or actions that must be completed). What must be done, from a business perspective, to achieve the defined goals? The business requirements help provide context for the specific capabilities that are required and will drive the user community classification.
3. Define user community. Define the users involved in achieving the business goals across the entire user community spectrum. Who is involved in achieving the business goals? The user community is critical to determine the types of users. Every organization will have different classifications but typically, you find roles such as management, analysts, business users, and information consumers.
4. Define functional requirements. Define what functionality will achieve the business requirements for the user community. What must be done and who will do it? Your organization must research, define, and validate the functional requirements across the user communities to ensure their applicability and specificity.
5. Define functional capabilities. Define what functional capabilities must be provided to meet users' functional requirements. This definition will encompass a list of the specific tasks or capabilities needed for each functional requirement. How is each requirement satisfied by the functional task? The functional capabilities provide context to the individual capabilities that can support the tasks that are part of a user's role and responsibility.
6. Determine master list of vendors. Determine the vendors that most closely align to the functional requirements and capabilities and determine the master list of vendors. Who are the vendors that provide the required functionality? By identifying users, functional requirements, and capabilities, you can arrive at a scoring model that will benchmark products efficiently.
7. Define business and technology criteria. Define the complete business and technology selection criteria to choose a short list of vendors. These criteria could include usability, manageability, reliability, functionality, adaptability, TCO, ROI, and vendor validation. These criteria generate the next level of scores to determine your vendor short list.
8. Evaluate and select vendor. Fully evaluate the short list of vendors based on business and technology criteria, and select the vendor for the business project. This evaluation should include a proof of concept to assess and validate vendor products. This step will determine the vendor that best fits the business project.

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