Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
What type of documentation exists for this data? Do the data elements
have up-to-date definitions?
How accurate is this data?
Are there any known peculiarities with this source of data? If so, please
describe them.
How do the candidate source systems interact with each other?
Does the data integrate easily?
Describe the current user reporting and analysis environment.
There may also be requirements that should be included in the business
themes documentation. These are themes that represent what the IT organi-
zation needs to effectively build and manage the data warehouse. These are
requirements that the data warehouse project may need to address. Often,
IT management identifies these needs. The same questions used for other
business groups can be used to determine IT business requirements.
SAMPLE IT BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS
System Usage and Tracking
In order to better support the business community, it is important to be able to
track the percentage of time that applications are available for internal use and
for external use. It is also helpful to track who is using which systems, how
often, and for how long. This helps the systems staff to ensure appropriate
capacity, address performance issues, and identify applications that are not
providing value. If an application is not being used, that typically indicates that
there is a problem. Perhaps the application is too difficult to use, or the
performance is not acceptable, or the functionality no longer meets the needs
of that group. This becomes even more critical as applications are released to
external users, such as customers and vendors. This information is needed
to enable the systems community to develop and support valuable business
applications.
Education
The entire organization has already begun to learn about information
management and data warehousing concepts. This education must continue
and be at an appropriate level of detail for each audience. These concepts need
to be understood to help integrate them into day-to-day work, set priorities,
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