Data Warehousing Business Requirements

Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing Successful Programs are built on solid business requirements.

David Haertzen, Principal Enterprise Architect

Data warehousing business requirements describe the needed solution in business terms.  Gathering and managing business requirements include these steps:

• Homework
• Enterprise Goals and Objectives
• Identify User Groups
• Requirement Interviews
• Requirement Workshops
• Sizing

Rapid Data Warehouse Requirements Gathering

Gathering requirements rapidly using a sound methodology has numerous benefits:

• Increased Productivity
• Improved Solution Quality
• Rapid Results
• Longer Lasting Results
• Enhanced Teamwork and Cooperation
• Lower Development Costs

Homework for Data Warehouse Requirements Gathering

 Be sure to do your homework before gathering requirements from others for the data warehouse and business intelligence effort.  You can save the time of the people you will meet with and interview before hand.  One thing you must understand is previous data warehousing efforts:

• Who was involved
• What were the results

Researching documentation can help you get a handle on your organizations current and prior state of data warehousing.  You can examine documents such as:

• Enterprise mission, vision and strategy statements
• Business plans
• Annual reports
• Business unit plans  
• Data strategy and roadmaps
• Data warehousing project plans
• Requirements specifications

In addition, computer based information can provide insight into requirements of existing systems:

• Database layouts
• Data models
• Metadata repositories
• ETL Jobs
• Programs

 By doing your homework, you acknowledge the prior data warehousing efforts that have been made, avoid looking uninformed and save others time by not asking questions that have been previously addressed.

Identify Business Intelligence User Groups

  Identifying and engaging the right people who will participate in data warehousing and business intelligence efforts is key.  Focus on decision makers such as:

• Executives
• Managers

The poeple who analyze data are subject matter experts (SMEs) who will provide valuable input.  Examples are: 

• Financial Analysts
• Marketing Analysts
• Information Consumers

The people who create reports often have great insights because they are asked by the business to create business intelligence reports.  They often have a backlog of requests and "wish lists" that can be translated to data warehousing requirements. 

Interview Business Intelligence Users

There are a number of good reasons to interview individual business intelligence users for data warehousing requirements gathering.  The reasons include:

• Obtain facts beyond research
• Verify research facts
• Answer open issues and questions
• Encourage buy in by participation

Here are some suggestions to make the interview process productive:

• Break the ice - establish rapport
• Prepare an agenda and questionnaire
• Be friendly and flexible within limits
• Talk business, not computer buzzwords
• Remember the Kipling Questions

Important Interview Questions

• What are the expected goals of your area? What are you working to accomplish?
• How do you measure results?
• What are the critical success factors of your job?
• How do you identify opportunities and problems?
• What business dimensions are important to your analysis and decision making?  (Products, Customers, Vendors, Time)
• What are your current sources of information?
• What is your vision for the future of your area?

It is also important to understand the organization a higher level.  Peter Drucker in his book Management has recommended these critical questions and corresponding decisions:

• What is our business?
• What will our business be?
• What should our business be?

Group Methods

A facilitated group session is often a great way to gather requirements.  Requirements are gathered faster than through the individual interview method and the meeting participants have the opportunity to bounce ideas off each other and reach a consensus on the requirements.

See the tutorial article, BI Requirements Workshop, for a practical approach to conducting group data warehouse requirement gathering sessions.

SMART Objectives