The application lead developer works closely with the data administrator and the database administrator to understand the data access, data analysis, and general data requirements as well as the tool capabilities. He or she must estimate the effort for application prototyping and development, which the project manager will include in the project plan.
Business representative
Although the business representative does not actively produce estimates for the work to be performed by the technicians, he or she must be involved in the entire planning process in order to negotiate the project constraints. The business representative must also understand how much of his or her time will be required on the BI project and what is expected of him or her.
Data administrator
The data administrator needs to participate in the requirements discussions in order to determine the data scope of the BI project. The data administrator will provide any data models that exist for the objects and data elements in the requested subject area. If no data models exist, the data administrator can draw a straw-man model (that is, a first-cut draft of a logical data model) and use it to validate the understanding of the requirements and the scope. The data administrator works with the data quality analyst to assess the condition of the source files and databases.
Data quality analyst
The main responsibility of the data quality analyst is to assess the condition of the source files and databases and to estimate the data-cleansing effort based on that assessment. To assess the quality of the source data quickly, the data quality analyst can use the functions of a data-cleansing tool, or he or she can write customized domain analysis reports .
Database administrator
The database administrator needs to understand the scope and schedule of the project from the DBMS perspective so that he or she can be available for database design and application design activities, as well as ongoing project reviews.
ETL lead developer
The ETL lead developer works with the data administrator and the data quality analyst to understand what types of data transformations and data cleansing the BI application will require. Based on the condition of the source files and databases, he or she will give ETL estimates to the project manager for the project plan.
Meta data administrator
The meta data administrator is responsible for defining the tasks and estimates for the meta data repository track. Working closely with the data administrator, the meta data administrator has to start exploring what the meta data requirements for this BI project are and whether they can be met with the current meta data repository (if one exists). He or she has to determine the meta data repository effort for the project plan.
Project manager
BI projects are not for rookie project managers. The project manager must have successfully managed several large projects before. The project manager must also be familiar with a project management tool to minimize the time required for preparing charts and reports.
Subject matter expert
The subject matter expert will assist the other team members in preparing the project plan and the project charter. Either the subject matter expert or the business representative must be an active, full-time participant in this step.
