How to setup a Business Intelligence Department?

Question

I am a contractor working as a technical business analyst. I would like to get into Business Intelligence so am taking a BI program at the local university.
I dont have any experience in BI so i wanted to learn by posting a question to the user community.
- What questions would you have to pose in order to setup a business intelligence department and what types of questions would you ask yourself when generating key measurements?
Andrew

Answer 1

user10711997 wrote:
- What questions would you have to pose in order to setup a business intelligence department Real answers from the corporate world? That would be along the the lines of..
Who is the executive or board sponsor? What's the budget? What are the strategic goals? What authority will you have for setting up the department? Who will you report to?
And yes, it will be more about dealing with corporate politics when managing a department than anything else. Not about shiny CV's. Not about publishing papers.
and what types of questions would you ask yourself when generating key measurements?Single question. Can the answer facilitate in either cutting losses or increasing profit? That is what the bottom line is. If you fail to show that there is a RIO for such a BI department, the department (and you) will have a very short future in the corporate.
I find these questions a bit weird though as they have nothing really to do with BI and everything to do in dealing with the culture, internal structures and operational procedures of a corporate. A simple issue like fully understanding HR procedures and policies can spell the difference between employing an excellent BI candidate, or loosing him/her to the competition. Or not following Procurement's red tape trail can delay purchasing of critical software or hardware by months.
People and management skills are by far more critical in such a position than claiming years and years of BI experience.