BI Systems Managers’ Perception of Critical Contextual Success Factors: A Delphi Study

The present article investigates critical contextual success factors (CCSFs) that influence business intelligence (BI) system success in terms of their relevance and controllability. The initial set of CCSFs is based on an analysis of existing literature and serves as the basis for further exploration of these factors. Advances to previous studies are the validation of possible CCSFs influencing BI system design by domain experts in a Delphi Study and the multi-dimensional view of these factors. A carefully selected expert panel investigated CCSFs not only with regard to the dimensions of relevance – which is typical for ranking-type Delphi studies – they also assessed each factor in the dimension of controllability. This two-dimensional approach allowed us to identify five distinct clusters of CCSFs that influence BI system success. This paper contributes to information systems (IS) research on critical success factors in general and provides the BI domain with specific insights. The results contribute to the BI success factor literature and can potentially be generalized to other IS. BI managers may use the results to assess their daily challenges in BI system development and maintenance projects