Tool Kit for Strategy-Aligned BI

In some cases, organizations face a situation where BI responsibilities are not known, not defined, or not sufficiently involved in (business) strategy development. Even when such BI responsibilities are defined, those responsible may not be sufficiently informed about the business strategies, their underlying goals, and appropriate performance measurement criteria. As a result, the ability to consistently provide effective support through tailored business intelligence is likely to be weak, or at least only incidentally aligned with business strategies. How can this situation be remedied? Undoubtedly, the best scenario would be to achieve an improved situation of continuous close collaboration between all relevant stakeholders. However, if for some reason this is not sufficiently possible, the next best option is to strengthen the ability to interpret the business strategies and their key components and to develop a basis for deriving the strategic business requirements for business intelligence. This does not necessarily mean that this interpretation and the resulting proposals will be valid in all facets, but it still provides the opportunity to contribute to business decision-making in a collaborative way. In this chapter, we will present a tool kit on how this could be done in practice. Keep in mind that this is still a second-best option, but it is typically quite common.