Fourpoints agile bi brochure v1 4 us pages

AGILE BI

FourPoints Business Intelligence.

MediArena 10, 1114 BC Amsterdam-Duivendrecht.

www.FourPoints.nl

OUR AGILE WAY OF WORKING GETS YOU EXACTLY WHERE YOU NEED TO BE

By FourPoints, Amsterdam

Helping you move forward Many projects, especially in IT, extend beyond the planned enddate, tend to burn up more money than budgeted and deliver inaccurate results or even worse…. no results at all. Often, communication procedures are agreed upon to enable tight progress tracking of the project underway. Still, it feels like the submarine only re-emerges at the very end of the deadlines.

More often than not, you have a feeling of ‘not being in control’, of ‘hoping for the best’.

Why don’t you get in the drivers’ seat? Why not have regular, tangible results that prove progress? A project is a learning process. Why not adjust or re-prioritize your requirements along the duration of the project? Wouldn’t that make you feel more in control, more relaxed?

We do BI and BI only in an agile fashion, with you in the drivers’ seat. You constantly adjust where we are heading. Making sure that you arrive exactly where you need to be....

www.FourPoints.nl

JORG VREESWIJK

RENÉ DE JONG

CENGIZ YASAR

Working in an agile fashion is neither about methods, procedures nor terminology.

It is about people, their values, culture and attitudes. Their way of working together.

I enjoy seeing how seemingly complex projects arrive at a great finish. And although often, the results may not be what was envisioned at the start of the project, they always turn out to be exactly what is really needed !

In an agile team you’re never on your own. As experienced professionals, everybody picks up any outstanding task and helps one another to overcome difficulties. Every other week, we deliver results.... as a team.

agile coach

scrum master

agile team member

OUR TEAM OF CREATIVE BI-PROFESSIONALS DELIVERS THE RESULTS YOU REALLY NEED See for yourself

No humbug or attitudes in our teams. Just knowledgable, down-to-earth professionals.

Have you seen them? Projects that have more chiefs than indians?

Seeping every bit of creativity and accountability out of the individual?

A well-composed team that works in an agile fashion leaves room for a shared feeling of responsibility for what needs to be delivered. Encourages creativity in finding effective solutions. Such a team steers itself driven by your requirements. That’s why we tend to use an agile way of working enabling you to constantly experience, understand and align what we produce.

www.FourPoints.nl

The shocking reality of ICT-projects Current research shows that the odds of a project with a size exceeding 3 million Euro, to fail is ‌ 100%. And it is not only the size that matters. Smaller projects, up to 75k Euro, still exhibit a fail chance of 45%. Only 18% of all projects gets finished within time and budget. A staggering 10% of all projects never get finished at all and 50% fail partially. Next to time and budget, failure also includes not delivering the correct results (28%). Common fail factors: failing project management, distorted communication, none or poorly defined requirements and limited oversight and insights in complexity. As a project owner, you may feel tempted to get more in control of those projects, to tackle problems quickly and address deviations of the end-result as soon as possible.

But then you are in a collision course with the traditional methods of managing projects. How to regain control‌.. ?

Dealing with changes Projects tend to change and the longer and bigger they get, the more they are prone to change. Traditional ICT project management, especially in the realm of software development don’t easily allow for change. Requirements are agreed upon at the start of the project, they are translated in logical designs, that get translated into technical designs, that subsequently get build, tested and implemented. And this whole sequence might take up to a year or even longer. The common reaction is to better specify and detail the requirements, have them formally approved and then set up strict project governance that avoids changing the projected results. It’s like a piece of ancient artillery, you aim as precisely as you can and that pull the trigger hoping for the best.

But‌. during the projected course of the cannonball things can change.

The target may move because new ideas concerning the results may arise.

Or the trajectory may need change due to further insight in complexity and functionality derived from the designs. A project is a learning process, also for the project owner.

Agile development and project management embraces change. It is more like the new ballistic missiles. You can adjust the trajectory during flight and even cater for any repositioning of the intended target.

www.FourPoints.nl

Agile BI Projects The field of Business Intelligence is particularly prone to requirements drift. It is often difficult for managers and analysts to envision and formulate their information needs beforehand. Especially for organizations that have just begun using BI. Therefore it is crucial to allow room for the inevitable learning process. And that’s where the snag comes in.

Traditional project management does not sufficiently allow for changes in the set of initial requirements. Requirements need to be determined at the very start of the project, and

project succes largely depends on leaving this initial set as it is. Agile development, on the contrary, is specifically tuned to cope with changes. Agile embraces and facilitates the learning process.

That’s our way of working. Our teams of experienced professionals, work tightly together to generate high quality results under constant adjustment and adaptation. We are the reliable car, that you drive to make sure that you arrive exactly where you need to go.

www.FourPoints.nl

CLOSELY TOGETHER

SPECIFIC RESULTS

IMPORTANT FIRST

The ‘product owner’ embodies the active involvement of the business through specifying, prioritising and evaluating the results. For agility, business and IT learn and work closely together, constantly.

Based on the requirements, the product owner writes ‘Stories’ that describe each deliverable. This helps him to gain insight in the consequences of each requirement and to specify an actual, tangible result.

The product owner is in charge of the results of the Agile team. Every cycle, the set of open stories (‘backlog’) is re-assessed and prioritised.

Important stories get selected first, so results are what you value most.

www.FourPoints.nl

DELIVER WHAT’S NEEDED

A HEART BEAT

TEAM COMMITMENT

Agile results may be exactly what you foresaw at the start of the project. But they don’t have to be. Based on the incremental results, you will learn. Therefor intentions may shift. You can adjust along the way. You are driving!

Agile development has a ‘heart beat’ or iteration (e.g. two weeks). Every heart beat delivers a tangible result.

During this bi-weekly cycle, development is largely contained (changes are rare exceptions) to guarantee delivery.

Agile teams play ‘poker’ to determine the ‘weight’ of a story. This is not a game. It is intended to obtain a better estimate, and increases the commitment of the team to deliver what is planned for the increment.

www.FourPoints.nl

PEERS & SUPPORT

EMPOWERED BI-PROFS

SCALABLE TEAMS

Agile professionals feel committed as a team. They review each others’ work, help out one another. Every day they briefly stand together to convey their progress, possible problems they encountered and what’s next on the list.

As a principle, agile team members are multi-functional. They have all the necessary skills to create the sprint deliverables. Experienced agile teams form an environment of support, trust, creativity and commitment.

Multi-disciplinary professionals improve the productivity of the team and enables the team to grow or schrink with the workload. As long as the culture and attitudes are geared towards the agile way of working.

CREATIVE AND PROFESSIONAL SOLUTIONS CLEAN&ADEQUATE Make it happen.

+31 20 452 7505

info@fourpoints.nl

www.FourPoints.nl