Considerations for designing a Data Warehouse (part I)

Design | data Introduction
Identifying and understanding the business and operational requirements This drive any data warehousing project are Ial to the project World抯 successful completion. Your cannot meet your clients?needs if you are have not assessed and analyzed what, those and how can I address needs .

Who knows?

The most important part of the business requirements process are finding out who knows what the requirements should to be. In most cases, the answer to ' who knows what we need to know? ' Is this nobody knows it all, but everyone knows a.

and What do They Know?

The answer to this question are they know far more than they. In most cases your sources does not know they have valuable information-to what extent they are the only possible source For vital information that would help insure the project World抯 success.

The Biological Knowledge Base

Systems are designed, created, maintained and operated by people the WHO have the the system hand. This group's experts is collectively identified as the biological knowledge base, must tap effectively in order T O Extract the information you require.

Play by the Rules

Your Organization World抯 Business Rules (functional requirements) and operational characteristics (non-functional requirements Are the essence of the design requirements for your project. They must is carefully cataloged and analyzed to insure internal. When inconsistencies are found, your need to identify the cause of the inconsistencies (you'll find this in some cases th E inconsistencies are perfectly valid and reasonable) and determine the proper method (s) for adjusting the project.

How It has to Work and Why

For each component of your project, you'll need to identify the operational and business. For example, there is times the need for 24x7 availability'll supercede the need for total accuracy. Situations such as this must is taken into consideration and included in your development.

Cultural/political Constraints

Cultural and political constraints'll have a serious impact on your success, so they must is addressed while collecting The business requirements that define the project. Even in those cases where the political environment are opposed to the "project team", can use needs political Ationships to increase the visibility and acceptance of your project, but only if you have a clear understanding of the DY Namics involved.

Assessing/addressing risks

Every project faces risks, some are minor, some severe. The successful project is based on identifying what those risks are, how likely they and are to occur, and how serious they d What actions are best to prevent the issues from arising. Identify the tactics to is used in dealing with the issues when they do arise, because, despite your best efforts, some WI ll still occur.
Mine The Biological Knowledge Base
The biological knowledge Base is the complete body of human knowledge and intelligence available. The readily accessible biological knowledge base primarily consists of:designers and developers, knowledge workers, end U SERS, management, System staff, security staff and physical maintenance staff.

Everything you learn from the biological knowledge base should become a section of the business requirements for your project and is fully documented to serve as valuable material for subsequent projects.

Designers/developers

Design and development staff members are those who are or have been responsible for creating and maintaining existing EMS and are tasked with integrating future systems. You'll need to gather business requirements and functional constraint information from architects (business, data and Sy STEM), database administrators, database analysts and programmer analysts. Each of the would have their own perspective on your project and on the information needed.

Effectively interviewing the designers and developers'll provide you with background information that'll give your pro Ject a head start toward a successful completion. Their knowledge'll provide a foundation upon which to builds the final business requirements that your business Identify.

Architects

Architects create the designs for the environments in which applications and systems function. They are seldom directly involved in building of applications, systems or databases, but provide the blueprints from whic H such structures are created.

Architects can detail information contained in the design documentation as as as the enterprise standards, logical limit Ations and business functionality. Architects also begin gathering the data requirements for the project.

DBAs

Database administrators and analysts are experts when it comes to creating, maintaining and optimizing the data structure Behind information management applications. These are DBAs are an invaluable resource.

DBAs can provide your team and nearly everything it needs to know about database management systems, structure, security, Resource requirements (hardware, software and personnel), enterprise standards, physical limitations and how others have Integrated business rules into their database implementations.

Programmer analysts

Programmer analysts are the ones who create the code that makes applications. Their job is to take a concept and turn it into a functioning system that provides the desired capabilities.

These specialists should are interviewed with the intention of deriving information on operation limitations in their Cations, structural standards that constrained the "design and development of the" applications, how they enforce the busine SS rules that defined their projects and a listing of the "design" requirements from which they.
Knowledge workers (Subject matter experts)
Knowledge workers are those who work and the base information for your project. They consist of business analysts, actuaries, accountants and business consultants, as as so marketing, sales, clerical and production.

Business analysts

Business analysts are your best resource for understanding to true Business meaning for a particular data element or set And for identifying the logic of which the application is based.

They'll provide you with information on which business questions need to is answered and where to find the data that wil L help to answer them. They'll also provide with the specifications on functional reporting requirements the information In order to develop the reports upon which decisions are.

Actuaries

Actuaries are statistical analysis specialists whom determine the likelihood that something would happen a specific number O F times within a identified group during a given time period. They can also be called risk analysts because They job identify risks the business.

They provide your team with information on the data elements They require in order to perform the statistical analysis Upo n which their predictions are dependent. They can also identify many of the derived and dependent measures that'll assist them in preparing analyses as needs and Demographics change.

Accountants

Accountants are the true numbers crunchers of the organization. They are the ones who determine to what extent the organization is profitable. They Make sure the books balance. They tend to is detail oriented to the exclusion of nearly every.

You'll get specific information regarding the data this feeds the Profit/loss analyses they use in building financial re Ports and budget management reports. They'll also provide detail on the derived and calculated measures from which builds these They.

Business Consultants

Business Consultants, whether internal or external, specialize in identifying ways to improve Business functionality and P Reparing plans for implementing the new processes. In order to accomplish their tasks, they must receive clear and reliable information the current and regarding Views of the business as developing trends.

The consultants would identify the business questions they need answers to into order to identify the current state, which th EY base their trend analyses on. In many cases, the most important pieces of information are to derived from Profit/loss.

Marketing Staff

The marketing team are primarily interested in identifying potential customers, learning what products or services they wan T and determining how your organization can fill all or part of that need. In order to perform their tasks most effectively, they need to have sales, production and customer support data.

The marketing team is able to provide for you and information on the following topics:client, test segmentation NG requirements, marketing program effectiveness, customer relationship management and value chain management.

Sales Staff

The sales staff is responsible for actually turning a marketing to financial. They need to judge the effectiveness of sales strategies and tactics on a near real-time basis in order to adjust to mark ET conditions.

Your sales Professionals'll identify the information they need in order to support both sales and production reporting. They'll need this information on a periodic basis (sales for a specific date, week or month) as OK on a period to D Ate basis (production so far the year or month). They'll also need reports detailing projected production, inventory levels and sales in queue.

Clerical Staff

The clerical staff is primarily responsible to all data entry operations. They are usually hourly employees who does not have a highly developed technical set. They often overlooked in determining the "design requirements" for a business intelligence data store. However, they can be a font of knowledge regarding productivity reporting and data quality issues.

When interviewing this team members, focus on the data issues that effect their productivity. They'll be able to help your identify the elements which are essential to developing a comprehensive data quality program As as, as staff productivity reporting.

Production Staff

Your production staff is most intimately involved in developing, producing and delivering Your? Products and services. The information that most directly affects production includes:pending orders, inventory (current and projected), changes In production requirements (especially special marketing) and personal productivity.

Production is another group it frequently underutilized in determining data warehouse requirements. They can provide vital information on the data elements such as inventory, control, and order processing reporting. They would also be your best for validating this productivity requirements you have identified are in fact th OSE that have the highest value for the organization.

Other

Depending upon the structure of your organization and the business you are in, your may have several other categories of kn Owledge workers you are need to interview. Some examples Include:legal, political action teams, environmental impact specialists, medical practitioners and product Design professionals. In each case, take the ' time ' to ' get ' to know ' job as the ' person doing it ', so you can understand the context in WH Ich the required information is used.