Summary

My Master's thesis dealt with the study of the implementation of Business Intelligence (BI) in Region Midtjylland, one of Denmark’s five public regions.

The motivation for writing my master’s thesis stems from my autumn 2017 internship as a UX Designer at BI-kontoret, Region Midtjylland, which is responsible for implementing BI and administrate the BI-system in the region. Region Midtjylland's strategic goals with the implementation of BI are to deliver more welfare, better quality and greater sustainability for less money. The BI-system contains healthcare-data collected from the hospitals and locations in the region. Doctors, nurses and administrative personnel use the BI-system as part of research, management and treatment of patients.

Identification of problems

During my internship at BI-kontoret, Region Midtjylland, a number of issues in the implementation of BI was identified. A central observation was the lack of focus on the users of the BI-system in the implementation of BI. The lack is problematic as the BI-system may therefore not support the user’s BI requirements and system interaction in the best possible way. This could be detrimental to the fulfilment of Region Midtjylland's strategic goals with the use of BI. The understanding of the problem was expanded and substantiated through a literature review which emphasized the value of user insights in the implementation of BI in general.

Case study design

The Master's thesis was conducted as a case study design in a design practice, based on design through research with a user-centred approach. The research design investigated three domains: BI as technology, the internal development strategy and the users of the BI-system. The domain, BI as technology examines several definitions of BI from literature to create a broader understanding of BI. Furthermore, the value of user insight in the implementation of BI was investigated. The internal development strategy, and how and why the users are involved in the implementation of BI was investigated with a document analysis of internal documents and an interview with a manager from BI-kontoret. Based on the insights from the domains, BI as technology and the internal development strategy, it was examined how the BI-system supports the users. The survey was conducted through contextual design and contextual inquiry with different personnel at Aarhus University Hospital. The survey provided insights into how the BI-system support the employees in their daily work and identified a number of problem areas.

Results

The thesis established a theoretical understanding of BI as containing: Information as a tool, users of the tool, and the context of use. The thesis also established the importance of user insight in the implementation of BI. User insight is seen as an essential element of a successful implementation of BI. Furthermore, based on the theoretical and empirical understanding of BI it was seen that Region Midtjylland did not adequately involve users in the implementation of BI. Region Midtjylland has a strategic focus on what information the users need, but not how the information should be delivered through the BI-system. Therefore, there was a substantial lack of knowledge about the user's workflow and context. The missing element in the strategy had consequences for how the personnel was supported, in the form of both usability and information problems with the BI-system.

With DeLone & McLean's IS Success Model (DeLone & McLean, 2003), it was possible to create an understanding of the consequences of the identified issues. The thesis concluded that the lack of user insight and support of BI-system users harms the possibility of achieving the strategic goals in Region Midtjylland.

The thesis designates a UX strategy that can potentially resolve the identified issues, so Region Midtjylland in the future can achieve the strategic goals and objectives with the implementation of BI.

Research and analysis methods used

- Literature review
- Document analysis
- Interviews
- Ethnography observation
- Contextual inquiry
- Thematic analysis
- Contextual flow-model

Design Process

The design process was based on The Double Diamond containing the phases Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver.

Download master's thesis in danish