Let's form a team for a "Business Intelligence" project. Who do we need?

When forming a team for a Business Intelligence or Data Warehousing project, it is always advisable for filling the required roles with best and making sure they are fully allocated until the project is delivered, at least the first version. Not much differences with general IT projects but filling the roles with right person and right attitude should be thoroughly considered, organized and managed. This does not mean that other IT projects do not require same authority, but with my 14 years of IT experience, I still believe that Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing project needs an extra considerations.

How do we form the team? Who do we recruit for the team? What are the rolls that would play with this project? Before we selecting persons, before we forming the team, we should know what type of roles required for the project and responsibilities born by each role. That is what this post speaks about, here are all possible roles that would require for a Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing project.

Project team: Pic taken from http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/project-team.html

• A Project Manager
  This role requires a person who possesses good communication and management skill. I always prefer a person with a technical background because it minimizes arguments on some of the decisions specifically on resource allocation and timeframes set. Project manager coordinates project tasks and schedule them based on available resources and he needs to make sure that deliveries are done on time and within budget. Project manager has to be a full-time member initially and at the last part of the project but can play as a part-time member in the middle of the project.
  
• A Solution Architect
  This roles requires a person who possesses at least 10 years experience in enterprise business intelligence solutions. Architect's knowledge on database design, data warehouse design, ETL design, model design, presentation layer design is a must and he should understand the overall process of the business intelligence project and should be able to design the architecture for the entire solution. She/he does not require to be a full-time member but project requires him as a full-time member from the beginning to completion of design phase. This role plays as a part-time member once the design is completed as she/he is responsible for the entire solution.
  
• A Business Analyst
  Business Analyst plays the key role of requirement gathering and documentation. This person should hold good communication and writing skills. In addition to that, needs experience in BI projects related requirement gathering processes and related documents. Business Analyst is responsible for the entire requirement, getting confirmation and sign off, and delivery in terms of the requirements agreed. This is a full-time member role and required until project completion.
  
• A Database Administrator
  Database Administrator does the physical implementation of data warehouse and maintains the data warehouse, ETL process and some models implemented. He needs a good knowledge on the platform used and specific design patterns used for data warehousing and ETLing. Generally the role of database administration does not consider as a full-time role for a specific project because in many situations, administrator is responsible for the entire environment that contains implementations of multiple projects.
  
• An Infrastructure Specialist
  This role requires at least 5 years experience in planning and implementing server and network infrastructure for database/data warehouse solutions. This person responsible for selecting the best hardware solution with the appropriate specification for the solution, right set up, right tool-set, performance, high availability and disaster recovery. This role is a not a full-time member for the project.
  
• ETL/Database Developers
  An engineer who possesses at least 3-4 years experience in programming and integration. He should be aware on design patterns used with ETLing and must be familiar with the tool-set and the platform used. In addition to knowledge of ETLing, this roles requires programming knowledge as some integration modules required to be written using managed codes. Experience with different database management systems and integration with them is required for this role and responsible for implementing the ETL solution as per the architecture designed. At the initial stage, this is not a full-time member role. Once this design phase is done, team includes this role as a full-time member.
  
• Business Users
  Project requires this role as a full-time member and business user is responsible for providing the right requirement. This roles requires a thorough knowledge on the domain and all business processes. He is responsible of what business intelligence solutions offers for business questions and offers are accurate.
  
• Data Modelers
  Data Modelers are responsible for designing data models (more on server level models) for supporting analysis done by business users. This roles requires technical knowledge on modeling and should be familiar with the tool-set used for modeling. This is not a full-time member role.
  
• Data Stewards
  Data Stewards can be considered as business users but they are specialized to a subject area. This is not a technical role and this role is responsible for the quality and validity of data in the data warehouse. This is not a full-time member role and they are also referred as data governors.
  
• Testers
  This role is responsible for the quality of entire solutions, specifically the output. Testers with at least 2-3 years experience are required to the project and they work closely with business analysts and business users. This role joins with the team in the middle of the project and work until the completion.