dw toolkit chapter 1 defining business requirements
TRANSCRIPT
DW Lifecycle
Dimensional Modeling
ProjectPlanning
BusinessRequirementsDefinition
PhysicalDesign
ETL Design &Development Deployment
Growth
Maintenance
BIApplicationSpecification
BIApplicationDevelopment
TechnicalArchitectureDesign
ProductSelection &Installation
Project Management
Goal: Enhance Business Value
Technology is important; business value is mandatory.
Recruit strong sponsorship Define enterprise-level business
requirements Prioritize business requirements Plan the project Define project-level business requirements
Sponsorship
Business sponsors (more than one) take a lead role in determining the purpose, content, and priorities of the DW/BI system.
Visionary: sense the value with some idea of how to apply it
Resourceful: can obtain resources and effect organizational change
Reasonable: balance enthusiasm with an understanding of needed time and resources
Gathering Enterprise-Level Requirements
Prepare
ConductBusiness Interviews
Conduct IT Interviews
Write up Interview Summaries
Identify Business Processes
Conduct Prioritization Session
Write Requirements Definition
Use Data Profiles to Research Data
Sources
Build Initial Bus Matrix
The interview process The Interview Documentation Themes and
processes The bus
architecture
ConductBusiness Interviews
Conduct IT Interviews
Write up Interview Summaries
Identify Business Processes
Build Initial Bus Matrix
What do you want to know?
What is the problem area? How does the business you approach it? Is the data available? Who will use the results? Who cares?
Subjects (pp. 116 – 117)
Business Executive• What are the business issues?
• What is your vision? Business Manager or Analyst
• What are your measures of success?
• What data do you use?
• What analysis do you typically do? Data Audit
• Data quality or quantity issues?
• Potential roadblocks (political or technical)?
• How is ad hoc analysis conducted?
Results of the interviews
Analytic themes and business goals• Themes: fundamental questions that the business
wants answered
• Goals: state that the business aspires to Business processes: sources of data to
support analytic themes Dimensions: entities or categories that define
the themes Business value: how much is solving the
problem worth
Interviews
Individual or group Roles
• Lead Interviewer
• Scribe Pre-interview research Questionnaire Agenda User Preparation Write-up
Interview Roles
Lead Interviewer(s): • direct the questions and adapt to the conversation
Scribe: • take notes.
• interject if the lead interviewer misses something.
• write up the session
Observer (not more than two)• observe – not participate
The interview process
Introduce everyone: make everyone feel comfortable.
Introduce the subject• Remember your role
• Verify communication
• Define terminology
• Establish peer basis: know interviewees vocabulary and business understanding
The interview process (cont.)
Be flexible• be prepared to schedule additional interviews
• respect your interviewees time and reschedule if needed
Avoid burnout• don’t schedule too many at once
• leave time between sessions
Manage Expectations
The interview process (cont.)
Wrap up the interview• Summarize
• Ask for permission to call back
• Get documentation
Write up the interview• soon (2 hours to 2 days)
Tape recorders
Cannot really replace people Ask first May make subjects nervous Require listening to the meeting twice
Facilitated sessions
Each one takes more time than interviews, but may generate more
Requires an experienced facilitator Requires an initial understanding of the
user area Participants feed of of each others ideas Participants can negotiate
disagreements
Caveats
The one question to never ask is “What do you want in your computer system?” That is your job, not theirs.
You need to be brave enough to ask executives what keeps them up at night?
The interview team needs to resist the temptation to focus only on the top 5 reports or top ten questions.
Continually manage expectations.
Bus Matrix
Process Date
Product
Vendor Shipper
Dist Cntr
Store Promo
Purchase Orders
X X X X
Dist Cntr Deliveries
X X X X X
Dst Cntr Inventory
X X X
Store Deliveries
X X X X X
Store Inventory
X X X
Store Sales X X X X
Requirements Findings Document (Business Case)
Establishes the relevance and credibility of the data warehouse project.
Ties the business requirements to the realistic availability of data.