[Will_Parker]

This article seems to speak unfavourably towards building a basic BI infrastructure. I don't know why. There is immense value for having a single trusted source of truth where the most basic business questions can be answered ad hoc, with a suite of simple visualizations and KPIs that cover the most important facts of how the business is doing. Data like this serves as a crucial element of communication across different departments in the company.

One use of a strong BI infrastructure, that is under-appreciated, is as a sort of test suite for the business. If an important metric changes, it's extremely costly if it is not discovered very quickly. This also can lower the cost of business risks. In other words there can be much value in visible data that points to nothing new. BI isn't just a method to look for business improvements, though it certainly can be that, as well.

BI and data warehousing infrastructure doesn't replace more targeted and specific data science projects, it complements them.

[riri-au]

I guess I was a bit harsh, fair call.

I'll respond this way: basic BI infrastructure is the bedrock of an organization's data capabilities. The best way for an organization to build their initial BI/DS capability is to address some business problem, by building a warehouse. That's in contrast to building a warehouse and then looking for problems to solve with it.

So you're right, thanks for taking time to comment :)