Towards an Economic Foundation for the Decision between Agile and Plan-driven Project Management in a Business Intelligence Context

Lacking a formal yet practical decision model, nowadays decision makers mostly follow corporate guidelines or their intuition when it comes to the decision between agile and plan-driven project management in Business Intelligence projects. As one size does not fit all, using management methods hyped by temporary fashion or other management methods not adapted to the situation bears the risk of project failure. Thus, this paper proposes a risk-adjusted net present value-based model to support decision makers in the selection of the appropriate management method for Business Intelligence projects. We focus on two decisive risk parameters – the likelihood of environmental changes and the peril of improper system integration – and a project’s estimated cash flows. As a result, the tradeoff between different characteristics of risks and cash flows in a specific project is formalized and made transparent. In summary, this research-in-progress paper sketches the idea of a practical decision model that improves the foundation for the selection of the appropriate management method.