Data-Driven Healthcare: How Analytics and BI are Transforming the Industry

APPENDIX C Estimating the Efforts

How Much Can You Do?

The first impression you may have after the joint application design (JAD) is that there is a lot of work to do, and you're probably going to feel like you don't have the time and resources to do it all. The next step is to determine that in objective terms.

We use the SDLC model, because what we are focusing on at this point is packets of work. Some of that may be reports or dashboards but it may also include pilots or proof of concept (POC) work. In addition, you should estimate any programmatic features because they will require resources as well. I recommend breaking this out into buckets that are associated with the SDLC. This is helpful because it will allow you to plan the effort with parallel work paths. In other words, your analysis and design effort is usually done with your business analysts, but while they are working on another project, there's no reason that your developers can't be working on something else. Knowing this discrete type of data allows you to best align your team. It also highlights where you may have some staffing gaps, as in the table below. Although these are theoretical numbers, it's well known that the development portion of business intelligence work, including extract, transform, and load, architecture, and report/dashboard development, accounts for approximately 80 percent of the effort. Calculating the impact to your project and staff can start here.

Assessing Available Time