BICC Governance- Process, Technology and Data

This page is an extract from BIDS BICC Solution authored by Kamlesh Mhashilkar-Head, Execution-MiH Services of Tata Consultancy Services

Process Compliance

BICC will have defined set of processes for project execution, internal communication, estimation, project funding, etc. To achieve maturity in these processes, process indicators need to be defined, collected and monitored. These indicators can be categorised for Planning, Delivery, System Performance and Monitoring.

The following diagram gives examples of few process measures which can be defined by BICC for Process Compliance.

• Planning: To efficiently manage number of associates and project deliveries, effort estimations are a key. Also, for on-time delivery of projects, defining boundaries for each project is a key. Hence, in planning phase of any project, realistic targets should be defined for effort and scope.
• Delivery: Project teams are assumed to be operating in an optimal mode in a BICC. Delivery process measures are defined to record and improvise quality of delivery processes.
• System Performance: For any BI application, refresh windows are critical for decision makers to get information on time. Hence measures like Query Performance and Data Load Window are recorded to ensure process is within boundary conditions.
• Monitoring: All the process measures are to be monitored for any improvisation or change.

The table given below lists roles, which will define above process measures:

Note: This is a sample Process Measures list. Elaborate list of process measures shall be defined as part of Strategize phase.

Technology Governance

BICC’s Technology Governance focuses on Infrastructure Management by

• Standardizing technology
• Planning the architecture
• Reviewing Upgrades/Patches
• Technical Troubleshooting

Vendor Management

• Negotiations (first procurement, license augmentation, AMC)
• Escalation procedures
• Licensing

This helps maintaining overall rigor of strategic goals with standardized platform at reduced costs.

Any BI framework consists of multiple components like data-warehouse, ETL, enterprise reporting, etc. To design and develop these components, multiple technologies are packaged together. Let us take an example of an organization having various technologies such as Business Objects, Informatica, J2EE, Oracle, Teradata, MicroStrategy, etc. Each of these technologies can map to one or more of BI components (refer symbol X). Coverage or span of a technology across these components can be tabulated as below and then a decision on consolidation / rationalization can be taken.

In a rapidly growing environment, in absence of strategic body for managing deployment architectures for multiple products and procurement of licenses, overall architecture can become random and may lead to added maintenance costs. A BICC can help standardizing technology stack by identifying coverage of a technology, measuring popularity and capability of technology. This analysis can be done by using ISO 9126 quality characteristics.

Data Governance

Data Governance is a very large framework which builds an organization-wide ability to precisely define, easily integrate, and effectively retrieve data for both internal applications and external communication. It needs the following six components in place.

• A foundation layer of End-to-End Data Architecture
• Pillar 1: Metadata Management,
• Pillar 2: Master Data Management
• Pillar 3: Data Quality Management
• Pillar 4: Data Security and
• The Data Governance Council

Note- BIDS Solutions encompass the proprietary solutions from TCS covering Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing landscape.