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Data warehouse planning scenario – where to begin?

• I need pointers for a data warehouse planning and implementation exercise, even just some info on where to begin given this scenario. This is Data Warehousing from a general business/ planning perspective so heavy technical details aren't part of this at all. It’s an non-graded class activity this time, but the next one won’t be :o Thanks in advance for anyone who can help me with the specific scenario or just point me in the right direction. ********** MAIN OBJECTIVE ********** Draw from the ABC case to consider the planning & implementation process for Data Warehousing. ********** SCENARIO DETAILS ********** ABC Industries is a diversified global organization that provides a variety of services, including financial and technical, and manufactures its own numerous products. Its manufacturing base is spread across the globe. ABC’s production facilities are located in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Some of the company’s products are manufactured while others are assembled from procured components. The company, whose revenues are in excess of $35 billion, has 250,000 employees. The company’s stock has hit rock bottom as its earnings have been in a downward spiral for the past three years. The financial difficulties can be traced to a number of causes, including global competition, outdated products and services, an inefficient supply chain, an outdated infrastructure, inefficient processes, systems, and distribution, etc. The new CEO has made a serious effort to understand the root causes of the problems and find an appropriate solution. However, he has been unable to perform any meaningful analysis because the data required to perform such an analysis is either unavailable or not easily accessible. The company has a number of independent reporting systems that operate on different platforms, but they are outdated or unable to provide information that is timely, reliable, and accurate. The CEO has realized that he will not be able to make any progress unless he has access to a decision support system, based on a data warehouse, that will enable him to find the root causes of the problems and, consequently, help him make strategic decisions for saving the company. The CEO has assigned you, the Chief Information Officer (CIO), the strategic task of overseeing the data warehouse project. Your assignment is to develop a design plan for the data warehouse. ********** GOALS OF THE ANALYSIS ********** There are 11 key areas of focus, which I can freely merge or re-order: 1. Project objectives 2. Planning and preliminary activities 3. Project plan w/ high level activities 4. Implementation approach 5. What subjects will be implemented in what order [first customers, then sales and bookings, etc.] 6. Plan for gathering requirements 7. Architecture and selected tools 8. Brief justification of critical decisions 9. Overview of existing infrastructure [per scenario] and the possible impact of implementation 10. Plan for deploying the changes 11. Any anticipated issues during steps 1-10 and contingencies [i.e. how to stop scope creep].

• Answer:

  Sorry if some of this is too basic: http://www.1keydata.com/datawarehousing/datawarehouse.html http://datawarehousetutorial.org/ http://www.planet-source-code.com/vb/scripts/ShowCode.asp?lngWId=5&txtCodeId=378 https://secure.ucci.com/.../data_warehouse_training_manual_web.pdf