Overview

Getting started building a data warehouse can be a challengefor many companies. The concept may be a goodidea, but where do you begin? How should you proceed?This chapter is dedicated to creating that first data warehouseapplication and ensuring that it is aligned with thebusiness direction and focus. Because the investment in a data warehouseis a substantial commitment, many companies will need to assuretheir management that they can successfully implement the datawarehouse. Because the investment can be substantial, the first implementationneeds to be clearly aligned with the business. Your companymay require a business case study and/or a prototype (or proof of concept)to be built before implementing a full-sized data warehouse. Thebusiness exploration process will become the essential part of a prototypeand a business case study. The concepts that I will discuss are notcompletely new, but there are some small variations for data warehousing.You can use these techniques to gather requirements, prioritizerequirements, scope the project, deliver the prototype concept, and builda business case justification for the first data warehouse development.This process will ensure the support and backing of your company.

Before I begin describing the process of gathering business requirements,you really need to understand why this is important. In manydata warehouse implementations, this step is overlooked. Most peopleknow there is value in building a data warehouse, and they have a generalidea of the data requirements and the process requirements. Evensome of the analyses are understood clearly. However, it is rare to finddocumentation specifying the analyses that are wanted, much less thepriority...