According to a recent study, the duration of analytics projects has shortened dramatically in recent years. As it turns out, faster projects seem to create higher value for organizations.
A global survey of BI & analytics users conducted by analyst firm BARC found that analytics projects with short implementation cycles have a higher business value (source: via it-daily.net). Projects that can be completed within six months are far more valuable to companies than projects that take up to three years to finalize.
On average, projects currently last around four months. At the same time, the regular project duration continues to decrease.
54% of all projects in the last two years were completed within three months.
For older projects, this only applies to 43 %. Contributors are agile project methods, but also technologies that are quicker and easier to set up. Growing expertise also ensures that projects can be completed more quickly. The more projects are carried out, the more routine implementations become.
While implementation time has a positive impact on added value, there is still one area where patience pays off. The survey finds that completed projects bring more benefits over time. BARC asked about clear benefits of BI & Analytics projects in more than ten areas. Applications that had been active for more than two years consistently scored better than more recent applications.
This is relatively easy to explain: The longer applications have been in operation, the better they are integrated into everyday work, connected with other systems and optimized. Implementation alone does not bring success. Only effective use and integration into existing processes add real benefits.
In addition, I would guess that two years is enough time to structure and clean up existing data flows so that they can be used efficiently for BI and analytics.
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