The lifecycle of a business intelligence implementation - Business Intelligence in Microsoft SharePoint 2013 - page 64

The lifecycle of a BI implementation
One way to explain BI concepts is within the context of a BI implementation lifecycle. By looking at
the life-cycle, we also provide an approach to integrating corporate and self-service BI and align that
approach with the appropriate roles and tools. In some ways, the approach is just as important as the
tools. You have probably experienced that it's not what you are delivering to business users but how
you deliver it.
The diagrams in this section gives you a 50,000-foot view of the lifecycle of a BI implementation,
from determining what questions must be answered to making data available in the form of interac-
tive visualizations, charts, and graphs. Of course, these diagrams cannot represent all of the possible
scenarios or lifecycles that can exist within an organization.
In our previous topic, we provided an end-to-end example of the ETL process that involved mov-
ing data from a small database to a data warehouse by using SQL Server Integration Services and
then building a multidimensional cube. Figure 3-5 shows the parts that were covered in the first
book—these are worth your time to review if your team will use multidimensional data for report-
ing. Investments might have been made and the technology remains very relevant and the ideal data
source for organizational reporting.
FIGURE 3-5 The process, from measuring to dashboards.
In the example in this chapter, we chose to show the lifecycle of a BI project, presenting trusted
tabular data for insights rather than multidimensional data. There are several different use cases. You
will also note that the lifecycle for accomplishing an end-to-end scenario is shortened in comparison
to using multidimensional data because there is less complexity.
The example in this section is intended only as an illustration of the end-to-end process; it is not
necessarily reflective of the reality that companies face. However, for the purpose of learning about
the major components of an implementation, which includes subcomponents for each phase, this
example is very useful. After the end-to-end example, you can work through a quick hands-on lab to
practice creating a project in SSDT and then automating the data processing by using XMLA and SQL
Server jobs.
Note “Data processing” and “data refreshing” are used synonymously, although when a
PowerPivot report is scheduled, the term is “data refreshed.”