I am not sure whether it is the economic crisis focusing minds, or if there has been a turning point in the maturity of BI, but there seem to have been quite a few common-sense articles about the area recently. One I have just read is by Fei Luo at Information Management. The article may be read here.

Much of what Fei has to say chimes with my own experience of successfully driving change using BI in organisations. In particular, the observations about business involvement, having a strategy, regular business communication and the importance of training are all well-made. I would go even further saying that good BI projects must have a proper business / IT partnership at their centre; one that goes beyond business involvement and becomes business commitment.

My further thoughts about some of the themes raised by Fei Luo’s article can be viewed in the following blog posts:

I was pleased to see these areas being drawn together in a single, cogent article.
 

 
Fei Luo is vice president of information services at City National Bank, a public bank headquartered in California. Fei Luo can be reached at Fei.Luo@cnb.com.