This is a general description of the resources required in different phases of a project. The descriptions are not specifically tied to business intelligence, but could apply to any IT project.

See also Appendix A – Description of project stages.
 
 
1. Feasibility

A small team, with maybe only one or two of members dedicated full-time to the project.

Typical members: –

2. Preparation

More full-time resource from early on, through people previously involved part-time now dedicating more time. Desired project resource built up through recruitment, transfer and hiring of contractors.

Typical members at the end of this stage: –

3. Development / Testing / Deployment

The main development stage may commence without all staff on board, but the bulk of resource is that which was built up during the preparation stage. As progress is made to testing, more QA staff may be required and a help desk will be established. As focus increases on deployment, staff will be required to work on preparing training materials and possibly on delivering training. Staff numbers would normally plateau at some point during this stage.

Typical staff: –

4. Maintenance

Here the new or improved system is live, all relevant staff have been trained and the type of work remaining is bug-fixing and minor enhancements. The development / testing / deployment stage was the high-water-mark for staff numbers. It is normally prudent to maintain this level of staffing for the start of the maintenance stage, but eventually there will be need for a different balance of people and fewer of them.

Typical staff: –