Measuring benefits from big data analytics projects: an action research study

Big data analytics (BDA) projects are expected to provide organizations with several benefits once the project closes. Nevertheless, many BDA projects are unsuccessful as benefits did not materialize as expected. Organization can manage the expected benefits by measuring these, yet very few organizations actually measure on benefits post project development, and little has been written about BDA benefits measurements that extends beyond those typically identified in the project business case. This study examines how we should establish measures for BDA benefits in the context of a large wind turbine manufacturer investing in BDA to improve their practices when defining BDA benefits measures. We present lessons learned from our action research, that were found useful in establishing BDA benefit measurements. There are three lessons on (1) change, (2) specification of who, and (3) explicitness in establishing a useful BDA benefit measure. We contribute to BDA benefits realization in proposing the lessons to establish BDA benefits measurements. Finally, we discuss the lessons and contributions related to research on BDA value creation and benefits management.