Everybody seems to be talking about business intelligence these days, in part because the term appears to be as solid as Jello, slipping easily into whatever context vendors, analysts, consultants or reporters need it to. But despite its amorphous definition, BI's popularity is on the rise. After all, there aren't many companies that wouldn't like to be more intelligent about their business, and analyzing ever-growing stockpiles of data potentially presents a way to make it happen.

However, many of the conventional BI tools in place for the past couple decades were not designed to address the demands for real-time information and the rapid analysis often facing enterprises' IT departments today. These demands are putting heavier burdens on IT groups, some of which are having a hard time keeping up. According to Forrester Consulting, 66 percent of BI requirements change at least every month. 

One way to deal with the constantly growing and changing demands, according to Forrester, is to implement "Agile BI." Forrester describes Agile BI as a way to put BI tools in the hands of more users outside the IT department. The tools have to be more intuitive, and the users can't be expected to understand the data's complexities or how it is structured. The methodology and architecture emphasize rapid prototypes over traditional specifications, and reacting over planning.

In a paper released this month, titled "Agile BI: Is it Time to Make the Move?" Forrester's Boris Evelson outlines 10 questions CIOs should ask themselves when looking at deploying new BI tools. The study was commissioned by BI vendor Endeca, so that has to be considered, but the questions are pretty straightforward.

To start, you've got to ask yourself if your team is frustrated by the constantly changing demands. Is your data so complex that your team says you have to build specialized databases for pretty much every situation? Does it seem like you can never get rid of the backlog? Is your BI in the front office a much bigger headache than your BI in the back office?

And here's a good one: Are your DBAs and developers stuck in meetings seemingly forever trying to come up with new data models? Evelson summarizes what seems to be a common exchange:

IT's typical question to the business: "Can you tell me what types of information you are looking to analyze?"

The business user's typical response: "I don't know what my requirements will be tomorrow, I may want everything, show me what you have available, and I'll pick and choose."

It sounds like Agile BI makes sense in some situations, but it may not be the right solution for every organization with growing BI challenges. There are some case in which taking the time to understand the complexities and nuances of data is probably essential to effective analysis. Some inquiries still need to be carefully constructed to avoid over-simplified responses. Time is money, of course, but answers need to be good as well as quick. - Caron