1. OBJECTIVE OF THE EXERCISE
Your group plays the role of a small consulting team hired to plan a Business Intelligence (BI) / data analytics project.
At the end of the exercise, you should be able to:
– Identify the main phases and tasks of a BI / data analytics project.
– Distribute roles and responsibilities according to team members’ skills.
– Estimate costs, including person-hours, infrastructure, and maintenance.
Project duration: ca. 4 months
2. SCENARIO: BI ANALYTICS PROJECT
A hypothetical scenario to be adapted to your project.
UrbanFresh is a mid-sized company with 30 grocery stores. Management wants a BI solution to:
– Monitor daily sales and margins per store and product category.
– Analyse stock levels and wastage.
– Track customer behaviour via loyalty cards (frequency of visits, basket size, preferred categories).
Your team must propose:
1. A project plan (phases and main tasks).
2. A team structure and task distribution according to expertise.
3. A cost estimate (person-hours, infrastructure, and maintenance for the first year after go-live).
3. ROLES AND DAILY RATES (REFERENCE)
Assume 1 working day = 8 hours.
– Project Manager (PM)
Responsibilities: planning, coordination, communication with stakeholders
Daily rate: 800 €
– Data Engineer (DE)
Responsibilities: data ingestion, ETL/ELT, data warehouse / data lake implementation
Daily rate: 700 €
– Data Analyst (DA)
Responsibilities: requirements, KPIs, dashboard design, data analysis
Daily rate: 600 €
– BI Developer (BI Dev)
Responsibilities: dashboard implementation, reports, user training
Daily rate: 600 €
– DevOps / Infrastructure Engineer (Infra)
Responsibilities: cloud/on-prem setup, monitoring, performance, security
Daily rate: 700 €
You may combine roles (for example, one person can be both DE and BI Dev).
4. INFRASTRUCTURE OPTIONS (REFERENCE)
Assume a cloud-fog-edge-based solution. Below are the estimates for cloud resource provisioning. You should estimate edge and fog costs based on the estimated resource consumption from the deployment exercise.
Option A (smaller):
– Cloud data warehouse: 800 €/month
– Object storage (data lake): 200 €/month
– BI tool licenses (10 users): 1,000 €/month
– Monitoring and backup services: 300 €/month
Option B (larger):
– Cloud data warehouse: 1,500 €/month
– Object storage (data lake): 400 €/month
– BI tool licenses (10 users): 1,800 €/month
– Monitoring and backup services: 500 €/month
Project duration: 4 months.
Maintenance period: 1 year after go-live.
Rule of thumb for maintenance person-hours:
Maintenance person-hours per year = 20% of initial project person-hours.
5. TASK 1 – PROJECT PHASES AND MAIN TASKS
Define the main phases of the BI project and the key tasks in each phase.
Example phases (you can adapt):
– Project scoping and requirements
– Data architecture and infrastructure design
– Data integration (ETL / ELT)
– Analytics and dashboard development
– Deployment, training, and handover
– Operations and maintenance (post go-live)
Phase 1: _______________________________________________
Main tasks:
– _____________________________________________________
– _____________________________________________________
– _____________________________________________________
Phase 2: _______________________________________________
Main tasks:
– _____________________________________________________
– _____________________________________________________
– _____________________________________________________
Phase 3: _______________________________________________
Main tasks:
– _____________________________________________________
– _____________________________________________________
– _____________________________________________________
Phase 4: _______________________________________________
Main tasks:
– _____________________________________________________
– _____________________________________________________
– _____________________________________________________
Phase 5: _______________________________________________
Main tasks:
– _____________________________________________________
– _____________________________________________________
– _____________________________________________________
Phase 6: _______________________________________________
Main tasks:
– _____________________________________________________
– _____________________________________________________
– _____________________________________________________
6. TASK 2 – TEAM, ROLES, AND RESPONSIBILITIES
6.1. Team skills and roles
For each group member, describe main skills and assigned role(s).
Person 1
Name: _________________________________________________
Main skills (technical, organisational, communication, etc.):
_______________________________________________________
Assigned role(s): ______________________________________
Person 2
Name: _________________________________________________
Main skills (technical, organisational, communication, etc.):
_______________________________________________________
Assigned role(s): ______________________________________
Person 3
Name: _________________________________________________
Main skills (technical, organisational, communication, etc.):
_______________________________________________________
Assigned role(s): ______________________________________
Person 4
Name: _________________________________________________
Main skills (technical, organisational, communication, etc.):
_______________________________________________________
Assigned role(s): ______________________________________
Person 5
Name: _________________________________________________
Main skills (technical, organisational, communication, etc.):
_______________________________________________________
Assigned role(s): ______________________________________
6.2. Responsibilities per phase
For each phase, indicate which role is mainly responsible (R) and which roles support (S).
Example format (fill in):
Phase 1: _______________________________________________
– PM: __________________ (R / S / not involved)
– DE: __________________
– DA: __________________
– BI Dev: ______________
– Infra: _______________
Phase 2: _______________________________________________
– PM: __________________ (R / S / not involved)
– DE: __________________
– DA: __________________
– BI Dev: ______________
– Infra: _______________
Phase 3: _______________________________________________
– PM: __________________ (R / S / not involved)
– DE: __________________
– DA: __________________
– BI Dev: ______________
– Infra: _______________
Phase 4: _______________________________________________
– PM: __________________ (R / S / not involved)
– DE: __________________
– DA: __________________
– BI Dev: ______________
– Infra: _______________
Phase 5: _______________________________________________
– PM: __________________ (R / S / not involved)
– DE: __________________
– DA: __________________
– BI Dev: ______________
– Infra: _______________
Phase 6: _______________________________________________
– PM: __________________ (R / S / not involved)
– DE: __________________
– DA: __________________
– BI Dev: ______________
– Infra: _______________
7. TASK 3 – PERSON-HOURS AND PROJECT COST (4 MONTHS)
For each phase, estimate the effort per role.
For each phase and each role you use:
– Estimated number of days: ______
– Person-hours (days × 8): ______
– Cost (days × daily rate): ______ €
Phase 1: _______________________________________________
PM – days: ______ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
DE – days: ______ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
DA – days: ______ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
BI Dev – days: ___ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
Infra – days: ____ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
Phase 2: _______________________________________________
PM – days: ______ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
DE – days: ______ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
DA – days: ______ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
BI Dev – days: ___ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
Infra – days: ____ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
Phase 3: _______________________________________________
PM – days: ______ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
DE – days: ______ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
DA – days: ______ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
BI Dev – days: ___ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
Infra – days: ____ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
Phase 4: _______________________________________________
PM – days: ______ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
DE – days: ______ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
DA – days: ______ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
BI Dev – days: ___ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
Infra – days: ____ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
Phase 5: _______________________________________________
PM – days: ______ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
DE – days: ______ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
DA – days: ______ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
BI Dev – days: ___ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
Infra – days: ____ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
Phase 6: _______________________________________________
PM – days: ______ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
DE – days: ______ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
DA – days: ______ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
BI Dev – days: ___ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
Infra – days: ____ hours: ______ cost: ______ €
Totals (all phases, all roles):
Total person-days: ___________________________ days
Total person-hours: __________________________ hours
Total person-cost: ___________________________ €
8. TASK 4 – INFRASTRUCTURE AND MAINTENANCE COSTS
8.1. Choice of infrastructure options (A or B)
Data warehouse: Option ______ (A / B)
Justification: _________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Object storage: Option ______ (A / B)
Justification: _________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
BI tool licenses: Option ______ (A / B)
Justification: _________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Monitoring and backup: Option ______ (A / B)
Justification: _________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
8.2. Infrastructure cost for 4 months
Total monthly infrastructure cost: ______ €
Total infra cost for 4 months: ______ €
8.3. Maintenance (1 year after go-live)
Total project person-hours: ______ hours
Maintenance person-hours (20% of project hours):
______ × 0.20 = ______ hours
Maintenance person-days (hours ÷ 8): ______ days
Estimated maintenance person-cost (explain how you distribute days across roles and apply daily rates):
_______________________________________________________
Total maintenance person-cost: ______ €
Infrastructure cost for 12 months of maintenance:
Monthly infra cost: ______ €
12 months total: ______ €
Summary of costs:
Project person-cost (4 months): ______ €
Infrastructure cost (4 months): ______ €
Maintenance person-cost (1 year): ______ €
Maintenance infrastructure cost (1 year): ______ €
Total first-year cost (project + 1 year maintenance): ______ €
9. REFLECTION (SHORT ANSWERS)
1. Which phases or tasks do you consider essential for this BI project? Why?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
2. How did you decide the distribution of roles and responsibilities in your team?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
3. Where do you see trade-offs between cost, quality, and risk in your plan?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
4. Which assumptions would you need to check with the real client before starting the project?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________