BI development: a step-by-step roadmap,
system components & benefits

At the beginning of the BI development project, a BI team gathers information on a company’s analytical and reporting objectives, expectations from the BI solution, and issues users currently face when analyzing and visualizing data. Then, they assess the company’s IT infrastructure, conduct an initial review of data sources and data quality, including its completeness, timeliness, accuracy, and consistency, and evaluate existing data security and regulatory compliance practices.

Based on preliminary research results, BI specialists outline functional and non-functional requirements for the BI solution and identify potential project risks.

The BI team proceeds with a more comprehensive audit of data sources and conceptual and logical data modeling. They also design ETL/ELT processes, data storage solutions, data models for OLAP cubes, and dashboards for various user roles. Besides, they establish the BI system’s policies for data integration and quality control, data protection practices, and data governance standards and policies.

After designing the BI solution’s architecture, the BI team selects the most suitable environment for BI deployment, such as cloud, on-premises, or hybrid, and chooses an optimal tech stack for each component of the BI system.

At this point, the BI delivery team outlines the scope of BI system development and testing activities, develops an implementation strategy, plans resource distribution, formulates the approach to risk management, and calculates BI development project costs, duration, and TCO. Here, they also outline a BI development team’s roles and responsibilities, establish communication workflows and channels, and create the project’s schedule.

The development process covers building or configuring data connectors and ETL/ELT processes, developing data storage solutions, including enterprise data warehouses, data lakes, and data marts, and implementing data quality management policies and mechanisms.

BI specialists also design and implement data processing and querying mechanisms, implement data security mechanisms, including row-level security, access controls, and network monitoring, and integrate the BI solution with the business’s broader IT ecosystem. Moreover, they create role-specific reports and dashboards, enabling users from different departments to visualize the analysis results and present the insights in an understandable format.

Throughout BI development, the team thoroughly reviews the solution to confirm that it matches the outlined business requirements. They use different types of QA activities to make sure the software operates as intended, including functional, performance, usability, and compatibility testing.

At this stage, BI engineers deliver the developed BI solution to the live environment, prepare technical documentation to explain the design, development, and usage of a BI system for future reference, and educate users on how to utilize it effectively to fulfill their specific needs. After the BI system's launch, the BI team can monitor its performance, stability, and usability and troubleshoot any issues that emerge. If required, they also integrate new data sources and configure additional dashboards to improve the BI solution’s operation.