Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
reports in an MS Access database that are handled by someone in the business
group. Often, reports created this way are generated on a regular basis and
the business depends upon them. This qualifies them to be included in this
inventory. This is not an exercise to compile a complete inventory of all reports
or spreadsheets, but rather to discover the core collection of reports. These are
often handled like a real ''system,'' just not under the care of IT. Additional
questions that can help locate these include the following:
Where do your standard reports come from?
Is there historical data stored within the business group, such as in
spreadsheets, SAS data sets, or MS Access?
Is there a research group that collects and maintains its own data?
Is there a process (often manual) that is used to produce the most useful
reports for this group?
In addition, is there someone who everyone depends upon to get data
and to produce reports? If so, then explore where and how this work gets
done. When a business analyst is doing this work, these informal reporting
environments are often already known. However, if a project manager or IT
analyst is doing this research, then this can be much harder. When the business
groups cooperate, this yields more accurate and complete information. This
partnership can be encouraged through business management.
If your goal is to understand reporting across the enterprise, then only the
largest and most critical reporting environments need to be included. It could
easily take months to try to track down every instance of this less formal type
of reporting for an enterprise. It would be appropriate to dig into this much
detail if you are studying a single part of the organization.
Compiling an Inventory
Now that you have a starter list of the systems of interest, the team can continue
their work by collecting more information about each of them. When asked to
do this type of survey, people usually jump directly to researching the tools
and technologies that are used. That level of detail will be helpful, but it is
important to get a basic understanding of each of these systems first. Start with
the biggest and most well-known systems, possibly the data warehouse or a
data mart. Then progress to those systems with the broadest potential impact.
Leave for last any reporting systems that seem to be narrow in focus, such as
the reporting system used by facilities management to track the replacement
of light bulbs.
In order to collect this information, you need to find the person(s) who
knows the most about each of these systems. If possible, identify both a
business and technical person for each system. The technical resource, is the
