Manager's Guide to Data Warehousing

Aimed at helping business and IT managers clearly communicate with each other, this helpful book addresses concerns straight-on and provides practical methods to building a collaborative data warehouse . You'll get clear explanations of the goals and objectives of each stage of the data warehouse lifecycle while learning the roles that both business managers and technicians play at each stage. Discussions of the most critical decision points for success at each phase of the data warehouse lifecycle help you understand ways in which both business and IT management can make decisions that best meet unified objectives.

Auteur

LAURA L. REEVES, coauthor of The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit, has over 23 years of experience in end-to-end data warehouse development focused on developing comprehensive project plans, collecting business requirements, designing business dimensional models and database schemas, and creating enterprise data warehouse strategies and data architectures.

Texte du rabat
An ideal guide for the non-technical professional eager to learn more about data warehousing A successful data warehouse project can provide immense value for business enterprises or other organizations. Building and maintaining a data warehouse demands the combined efforts of both IT and non-technical personnel. While there are plenty of resources aimed at the technology professionals who design and build data warehouses, there has to date been no useful guide written for a non-technical audience. This book fills that void and serves as an ideal resource for business and IT managers and others from the non-IT side who want to do their part to ensure data warehousing success. This helpful book provides a solid introduction to the fundamentals of data warehousing. The author details each step of a data warehouse project, and provides a clear explanation of what's involved in efficiently building a data warehouse and what must be done to deliver the data. You'll examine the business management of a data warehouse and discover essential methods for cultivating a strong partnership between the business and IT elements of your organization. You can use this knowledge to be more effective when sharing your requirements and concerns during a project. A Manager's Guide to Data Warehousing explains what you need to create your data warehouse and establish long-term success. The book covers:

• The most common factors for ensuring data warehousing success and the roadblocks that can prevent it
• How to ensure that business and technical staff have a common understanding of the data warehouse project
• How to effectively communicate your business requirements for the data warehouse
• The tools you need to make certain that data is organized and can be delivered as needed
• Ways to deploy the data warehouse and ensure sustainable success

Contenu
Introduction xxiii

Part One The Essentials of Data Warehousing 1

Chapter 1 Gaining Data Warehouse Success 3

The Essentials of Data Warehousing 3

What Is a Data Warehouse? 4

Differences Between Operational and DW Systems 4

The Data Warehousing Environment 4

What Is a Data Model? 6

Understanding Industry Perspectives 7

Design and Development Sequence 8

Why Build a Data Warehouse? 11

The Value of Data Warehousing 12

The Promises of Data Warehousing 15

Keys to Success 16

Developing and Maintaining Strong Business and Technology Partnerships 17

Identifying True Business Requirements 17

Shifting to a Global Perspective 18

Overcoming Unrealistic Expectations 19

Providing Clear Communication 20

Treating Data As a Corporate Asset 21

Effectively Leveraging Technology 21

Roadblocks to Success 22

Believing the Myth: ''If You Build It, They Will Come'' 22

Falling into the Project Deadline Trap 23

Failing to Uphold Organizational Discipline 23

Lacking Business Process Change 24

Narrowing the Focus Too Much 25

Resting on Your Laurels 27

Relying on the Technology Fix 27

Getting the Right People Involved 28

Finding Lost Institutional Knowledge 29

Summary 30

Chapter 2 The Executive's FAQ for Data Warehousing 31

Question: What is the business benefit of a data warehouse? 32

Answer 32

Question: How much will it cost? 33

Answer 33

Question: How long will it take? 34

Answer 35

Question: How can I ensure success? 36

Answer 36

Question: Do other companies really build these in 90 days? 37

Answer 37

Question: How will we know we are doing this right? 38

Answer 38

Question: Why didn't this work last time? What is different this time? 39

Answer 39

Question: Do we have the right technology in place? 39

Answer 40

Question: Are we the only company with data warehouse problems? 40

Answer 41

Question: Will I get one version of the truth? 41

Answer 42

Question: Why can't we just use our current systems? 43

Answer 44

Question: Will the data warehouse replace our old systems? 45

Question: Who needs to be involved? 45

Question: Do we know where we are going? How will we know when we get there? 46

Answer 46

Question: How do we get started and stay focused? 47

Answer 47

Summary 48

Part Two The Business Side of Data Warehousing 49

Chapter 3 Understanding Where You Are and Finding Your Way 51

Assessing Your Current State 51

What Is Your Company's Strategic Direction? 52

What Are the Company's Top Initiatives? 54

How Healthy Is Your Data? 55

Does the Business Place Value on Analysis? 56

Reflecting on Your Data Warehouse History 57

Understanding Your Existing Reporting Environment 58

Finding the Reporting Systems 59

Compiling an Inventory 60

Identifying the Business Purpose 61

Discovering the Data You Already Have 63

Understanding the People 65

Tracking Technology and Tools 65

Understanding Enterprise Resources 66

Netting It All Out 68

Introducing the Case Studies 70

The Call Center Data Warehouse Project 70

In Real Life 70

Giant Company 71

Agile, Inc. 72

Summary 72

Chapter 4 Successful ITBusiness Partnerships 75

What a Partnership Really Means 75

What the Business Partners Should Expect to Do 76

Business Executives and Senior Management 78 The Ex...