Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
be added at this time. The remaining business requirements can be prioritized
again, to determine what is to be included in subsequent projects to expand
the data warehouse.
This same approach can be applied to defining the requirements for an entire
data warehouse program or for a single data warehouse project. The only
difference would be the breadth of the audience providing the requirements.
This approach helps organizations to look beyond the immediate need for a
specific report or type of data.
Some organizations balk at taking the time to gather and document business
requirements in this manner, preferring to jump directly to defining report
layouts and screens. Without the proper business context and rationale behind
the reports, however, the long-term value of the data warehouse can be limited.
Focusing only on reports causes the project team to work on delivering
only the data needed to create those reports. It is easy to overlook other
data that is stored with the specific data needed for the reports. Often this
other data could be included with minimal added effort or cost. Because the
business environment changes constantly, the types of reports and analyses
must also change. The requirements gathering process detailed here can help
organizations to be prepared to adapt to these changes.
Who Provides Input?
The project charter and scope help to determine who should be interviewed.
Representatives from the groups that are involved with or support the business
goals should be included. More details about how to determine who will be
interviewed are included later in this chapter. It is important to remember that
while the charter and scope help determine the people to interview, they should
not limit the topics of discussion. The process of gathering requirements may
show that the most important area needing support by the data warehouse is
not in the current project scope. The last part of this chapter provides ideas for
what to do in those situations.
Who Gathers the Requirements?
The work to gather these business requirements is typically done by a busi-
ness analyst, business systems analyst, and/or the data modeler. The people
filling these roles form the core group that is responsible for conducting the
interviews, analysis, and interpretation of the input and documentation of
these findings. Because the requirements gathering process is focused on the
business and does not address technology, it may be tempting to perform
this task strictly as a business activity. However, because the requirements
are used to drive the design, it is important to include more technical data
warehouse team representatives.
