Business Requirements Not Technology
Let business requirements drive your data warehouse, not technology. Although this seems SO obvious, you would not believe how many data warehouse projects grossly vio-late this maxim. So many data warehouse developers are interested in putting pretty pictures on the user's screen and pay little attention to the real requirements. They like to build snappy systems exploiting the depths of technology and demonstrate their prowess in harnessing the power of technology.
Remember, data warehousing is not about technology, it is about solving users need for strategic information. Do not plan to build the data warehouse before understanding the requirements. Start by focusing on what information is needed and not on how to provide the information. Do not emphasize the tools. Tools and products come and go. The basic structure and the architecture to support the user requirements are more important.
So before making the overall plan, conduct a preliminary survey of requirements. I low do you do that? No details are necessary at this stage. No in-depth probing is needed. Just try to understand the overall requirements of the users. Your intention is too vain a broad understanding of the business. The outcome of this preliminary survey will help you formulate the overall plan. It will be crucial to set the scope of the project. Also, it will assist you in prioritizing and determining the rollout plan for individual data marts. For example, you may have to plan on rolling out the marketing data mart first, the finance mart next, and only then consider the human resources one.
What types of information must you gather in the preliminary survey? At a minimum, obtain general information nit the following from each group of users:
Let business requirements drive your data warehouse, not technology. Although this seems SO obvious, you would not believe how many data warehouse projects grossly vio-late this maxim. So many data warehouse developers are interested in putting pretty pictures on the user's screen and pay little attention to the real requirements. They like to build snappy systems exploiting the depths of technology and demonstrate their prowess in harnessing the power of technology.
Remember, data warehousing is not about technology, it is about solving users need for strategic information. Do not plan to build the data warehouse before understanding the requirements. Start by focusing on what information is needed and not on how to provide the information. Do not emphasize the tools. Tools and products come and go. The basic structure and the architecture to support the user requirements are more important.
So before making the overall plan, conduct a preliminary survey of requirements. I low do you do that? No details are necessary at this stage. No in-depth probing is needed. Just try to understand the overall requirements of the users. Your intention is too vain a broad understanding of the business. The outcome of this preliminary survey will help you formulate the overall plan. It will be crucial to set the scope of the project. Also, it will assist you in prioritizing and determining the rollout plan for individual data marts. For example, you may have to plan on rolling out the marketing data mart first, the finance mart next, and only then consider the human resources one.
What types of information must you gather in the preliminary survey? At a minimum, obtain general information nit the following from each group of users:
- Mission and functions of each user group
- Computer systems used by the group
- Key performance indicators
- Factors affecting success of the user group
- Who the customers are and how they are classified
- Types of data tracked for the customers, individually and groups
- Products manufactured or sold
- Categorization of products and services
- Locations where business is conducted
- Levels at which profits arc measured---per customer, per product, per district.
- Levels of cost details and revenue
- Current queries and reports for strategic information
As part of the preliminary survey, include a source system audit, liven at this stage, you must have a fairly good idea from where the data is going to be extracted for the data warehouse. Review the architecture of the source systems. Find out about the relation-ships among the data structures. What is the quality of the data? What documentation is available? What are the possible mechanisms for extracting the data from the source systems? Your overall plan must contain information about the source systems.
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