(this is another follow-up to Chris Webb’s post on “Why Corporate BI and Self-Service BI Are Both Necessary”)
There is little doubt that the movement toward self-service BI is going to change the climate for some IT professional who specialize in BI – but the question is “how?” and “how much?” I’ve been in the software and database business for well over twenty years (ooo, I never thought I’d say that) and in that time, have seen several innovations and advancements that people said were “going to change everything”. New tools, techniques and practices have threatened the livelihood of IT professionals over the past few decades but have only helped to foster adoption and push the industry forward.
Anyone who has been in this industry more than a few years knows that things change every few years and our careers must evolve along with the industry. If someone wants to work in a business where things don’t change every three years, they can get a job as a woodcarver. I think that the way we work with business leaders and users will change a bit with the proliferation of these self-service tools but I also think, like most every other major industry shift we’ve witnessed over the years, this is a cycle. In cases, there will be over-adoption of do-it-yourself BI followed by problems that we will be called in to fix, trends will change and eventually there will be a balance. It’s how things work… that’s how people work.
