Self-Service BI does it Change the Rule of the Game for BI Systems Designers

Users of Business Intelligence (BI) systems have started to demand more flexible systems in which they could be empowered to serve themselves – self-service BI. In this paper we aim at explaining how such development influences designers of BI solutions and how it impacts the design situation. To say something about this we adapted the PACT (People, Activity, Context, Technology) framework on the BI design situation by conducting semi-structured interviews with vendors and suppliers of BI systems. From the research we found that self-service BI should be seen as a complement rather than a substitute to traditional BI. The concluding remark on the design situation is that designers of BI systems have to consider a more complex design situation where designers need to have increased knowledge about users mental models, decision focus and usage of BI systems in the analysis and design phases for being able to design useful self-service BI systems. The main conclusion from this is that designing for self-service BI is a more demanding design situation for designers of BI solutions.