Any insights into MIS reporting projects..? How to go about understand the business problem, collecting requirements, proposing a futuristic solution..?
Have a new assignment on to develop a futuristic MIS reporting system pulling across data from tons of external sources. Any insights into such engagements will be a great boot. Saving Changes...
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Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
It seems you are facing to create a Data Warehouse system, where system is not software system. This is not a new environment or architecture. This is a well knonw architecture that in the last times has been jeopardizes when some people use new buzzwords like Big Data (just today called Big Data ia a component inside the architecture). My recommendation after working in projects like that (like the person who define and created it and like project management) is going to the basement. Search for Teradata papers on the matter of IBM papers on the matter. Saving Changes...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Sounds like there is a need for some type of discovery sessions. First, define 'futuristic' :). Second, gain an understanding of the vision and intent of this system through the eyes of leadership and the development of the business case.. From there, get all various groups (up/downstream system owners in the discovery) to understand the what and why. Saving Changes...
Karl TwortSenior Project Manager| Fresh EggUnited Kingdom
I agree with the 2 comments above. In addition, remember for a NEW reporting style system, the key goal is to deliver the required data, not just have "Lots of data".
Making sure the reporting needs are met in the scoping phase with allow you to drive the project in the right direction, rather than over-complicating the solution with unnecessary bloat.
And, Futuristic - that needs definition :) Saving Changes...
For one, you need to be very purposeful on what data you pull. It can take a lot of work to integrate data sources that don't provide much value.
Start small, and add more data as you go. This is a good use of agile approaches. Get some working data before you try to plan a wholistic solution.
Some data sources are extremely difficult if not impossible to integrate with others. They were not designed for it and so the data is not structured in a way that makes it retrievable through external queries.
When we asked the people who create the metrics for the CEO of a company with the worlds largest IT department, how they pull their data for the executive dashboard, for some of it they had to manually collect data from various systems, and then manually create a picture that looks like it's a linked metric when it's really just a .jpg. Saving Changes...
