Evolutionary BI

Who invented the word evolutionary in the first place? Everything potentially is evolutionary. We evolved daily by learning new things, new smell, new food, new experiences, or even new friends. So is this any different to technology say in the Business Intelligence (BI) sphere?

I personally do not think that this is any different and like us technology will evolve whether we embrace it or not. Look at the development of super computers. Now what is that again? Well in the days not too long ago, they took up the entire floor space of a building with the processing power of a PC today. This is evolutionary. We used to installed software using floppy disks, now it is either via a CD or better via the internet, just download what you require, pay for it online and install. This is evolutionary.

So if technology is evolutionary, can we take a snap shot of a system and tell it, no more changes will be made for it, or we reject all upgrades and patches? In the business world, a non-evolutionary system is equivalent to a computer system that will not accept any upgrades or patches if the laws governing payroll tax, company or individual tax were to change.

Therefore it is rather difficult if not impossible to have a BI system built to encapsulate all future evolutionary enhancements and design that might be implemented without of course giving up on the "evolutionary" discussion. I have tried this approach, but all of my projects have a life span of "x". "x" is the variable whereby the "user" requirements will change depending on the state of nature at play.

This generally is triggered by one if not more of the following:

• change in DB schema - "user" wanting more "drill down" capabilities
• patch releases that will affect the DB Tables
• upgrades to the software that will affect the DB Tables
• upgrades to the software that will change the DB Table names
• merger of companies
• merger of DBs
• changes of the DB tuple to extend the field size to store more info
• changes in state laws
• changes in commonwealth laws
• changes in the "users" requirements

The above is by no means an exhaustive list but it gives you a good understanding that potentially there are a lot of issues that can affect the output of a BI system.

Consultants should build BI applications extracting as much knowledge from the users who will be using the application to try and extend the BI application life span. They must also acknowledge the fact that there is a life span or a future expiry date of the application that they had built. With time, challenges of the market, improvements of technology and methodologies, BI Applications will naturally evolve and the built BI applications could see enhancements, improvements or even a totally new BI Application.