Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Business processes are streamlined
New, special cases appear in the data, combinations of things that simply
had not arisen up to this point
New types of analyses may be needed
Query performance may slow down and need some attention
Even if you are not in the middle of a data warehouse project, you will still
find it beneficial for a cross-functional group of business representatives to
meet regularly with the data warehouse manager. This team may also include
other technical data warehouse staff members. This is a forum to raise any
concerns or issues that you may have.
This team is most effective if they have regularly scheduled meetings. Topics
are introduced and responsibility is assigned to research and follow up, and
the results from previous topics or issues are discussed. This meeting should
be strictly limited to one hour, as this will encourage continued participation.
This is a long-established technique to ensure ongoing growth and support for
the data warehouse.
Enterprise Considerations
The complexities and challenges of developing strong data warehouse teams
are even greater for large enterprises. One approach that can help leverage
skills and experience across the organization is to form an
enterprise data
warehouse team
. This team can be a group that reports directly to a single
manageroragroupdistributedthroughout the organization with dotted-line
responsibility to an enterprise team. Chapter 13 contains details about how
such a team can be structured and funded.
In Real Life
Many organizations struggle with bridging the gap between the business and
systems communities. Let's take a look at how this is working for the data
warehouse teams in the big and small companies we are tracking.
A Glimpse into Giant, Co.
In order to manage the sheer number of employees within the organization,
well-defined roles and responsibilities have been developed. These are quite
rigid, which can create big problems if someone reaches beyond his or her
area of responsibility. Employees have a very strong territorial attitude toward
their work, especially in IT. There are set channels for who talks to whom and
