David.Poole (4/11/2011)
The intent of Version 0 is to show what can be achieved. A taster with a promise of jam tomorrow. My worry is that executive thinking is "if they developed this with in no time and no resource then I can get a lot for very little outlay".As in an earlier post there has to be careful management of expectations.
I've had a proof-of-concept backfire on me spectacularly where most of the people involved agreed that the POC had failed in almost every tangible way but mission critical functionality had found its way into the POC so it went ahead anyway.
I am also extremely wary of Excel. I think I've seen it described as a Spreadmart! On one hand the business get great utility and early pay back. On the other hand they've driven a very large truck down a very tight cul-de-sac.
Excel is a fine business intelligence tool, so long as it's used for reporting or pivoting data from the Data Warehouse. If your team includes a business analyst who is also sharp with Excel, then the database developers can focus on the heavy lifting of creating the ETL processes and data model for the warehouse while the BA stays focussed on the client and handles all of their 1001 requests.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho