Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The main building-blocks of the KW (See Fig-
ure 1) are the OLAP reports, business processes,
information systems and stakeholders. The first
stage in designing KW requires realizing the con-
ceptual model of the KW layer which is based on
the DW conceptual modeling approach. The KW
approach can further support aggregating informa-
tion regarding DW usage, which is an additional
enhancement to existing DW capabilities.
for discussing the problems that were reported.
These knowledge resources, possibly more, may
be relevant for the specific issue at hand. There-
fore, aggregating the information and knowledge
resources into one coherent environment may
enhance the decision-making process.
kW-cM Architecture
In order to facilitate knowledge assimilation that
addresses the current needs of the learning orga-
nization, it is essential to discuss knowledge items
in the broader sense of their business environment.
Therefore, when decision makers discuss the DW
OLAP reports, they need to consider several ques-
tions: Which organizational business processes
are involved in utilizing the DW analysis reports?
Who are the organizational stakeholders that are
interested in getting the reports? What other or-
ganizational IS can contribute to getting a more
comprehensive perspective of the DW analysis
reports at hand?
In answering these questions there should be a
systematic definition of how to connect informa-
tion regarding business processes, stakeholders
and IS with DW analytic reports. Accordingly, the
original DW that was constructed (Adamson &
Venerable, 1998; Kerschberg, 2001; Giorgini et al.,
2005; Guo et al., 2006; Malinowski & Zim´anyi,
2006; Rizzi, 2007) remains unchanged, and is
considered a black box. In the new DW, entitled
KW, that we are constructing, the facts (events)
are the OLAP reports with KW dimensions that
consist of business processes, stakeholders and
IS (see Fig 2).
The KW dimensions exhibit the reports'
metadata, which in this case means data about
the report. This metadata is implemented with an
organizational ontology which maps the informa-
tion regarding the reports, business processes,
stakeholders and IS into concepts and relations.
Further, the organizational ontology concepts
are installed in the KW according to the report
kW-cM: knowledge Warehouse
conceptual Model
The concept of the knowledge warehouse concep-
tual model (KW-CM) is an extension of the mul-
tidimensional DW conceptual modeling (Rizzi,
2007) that addresses architecture, definitions and
formalism issues. For the sake of brevity, only the
new, extended part of the model is described (for
a detailed description, see Rizzi, 2007). In what
follows, the KW architecture and conceptual
modeling issues are explained and demonstrated
including formalism of the main concepts. The
KW-CM can help decision-making by giving
decision makers a comprehensive understanding
of the OLAP report, and by contextualizing its
content in relation to other organizational infor-
mation and stakeholders. Hence information is
turned into knowledge.
The KW-CM concept is demonstrated through
an example of a DW that handles information
regarding customer product usage. In this con-
text, consider a scenario in which a manger gets
an OLAP report showing insufficient usage of a
feature in a new product line. In order to support
the manager in making an intelligent decision,
more information is needed. For instance, data
records in the customer relationship manage-
ment (CRM) system reveal recurring complaints
regarding the feature. Furthermore, the marketing
information system provides information about
which campaign management processes have been
issued regarding this feature. The manager also
needs a point of contact in the R&D department
Search WWH ::
Custom Search