Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
with the kinds of questions that began to come in about the data warehouse.
Many of the questions regarding data meaning, accuracy of calculations on
reports,andhowtousetheBIinterfacecouldnotbeansweredbytheremaining
ETL developer.
Complaints began to flow in through the help desk and management
channels. The data warehouse, including the BI application, was really geared
toward helping the business. The business champion stepped up to work
with IT and business managers to determine what to do. They proposed
setting up a data warehouse center of excellence. This included the staff to
effectively maintain the data warehouse and provide appropriate support
for the business community. The executive steering committee approved the
requested funding. Once these resources were put in place, they were able to
set up the procedures and processes needed to help the business leverage its
investment in the data warehouse.
Unleashing BI at Agile, Inc.
The business users at Agile, Inc., were happy with the starter set of reports
that were developed on their behalf. In order to encourage a lot of use, all
of the users were given the authority to create their own calculations and
publish reports for general use. Many of the business users grabbed this
new opportunity to start creating their own reports and analyses. Dozens of
reports and calculations were added. The users who were not interested in
building their own analyses quickly learned to look through the published
list of available reports to find things to try. Unfortunately, many of the
old problems began to emerge. Too much time was spent in management
meetings debating which numbers were correct. This was frustrating for
everyone. Business managers decided to put a stop to this and figure out why
the data warehouse had not fixed this fundamental problem.
A core team was brought together to study what was happening. The team
included a data modeler, an ETL developer, a BI application developer, and
a project manager. After a quick review, it was apparent that not all of the
calculations that had been added were correct. Further review of the reports
showed inconsistencies too. The permission allowing everyone to tinker with
the BI environment was revoked. A high-level understanding of the data and
how to use the BI tool was set as the minimum in order to be granted privileges
to add to the BI environment.
The education offerings were aligned with these skills to provide a path for
people to follow to improve their skills. A review process was also set up so
that all new additions, reports, or calculations were reviewed on a weekly basis
by core BI application developers, who served a quality control function. Some
time was spent cleaning up the calculations and reports that had gotten out of
control, and the new policies kept the situation from getting out of hand again.
