Gathering Business Requirements For Data Warehouses

Gathering Business Requirements
An overview of the Data Management & Warehousing approach

Gathering Business Requirements 2010 Data Management & Warehousing 21 Jan 2010
Agenda
Overview of the process
Why gather requirements like this? Types of requirement Understanding what we can do Business processes create data Understanding dimensions and measures How these requirements are used Things to remember
Straw-man Proposal
A "straw-man proposal" is a simple proposal intended to generate discussion of its disadvantages and to provoke the generation of new and better proposals.
Next Steps
Overview of the process

Why gather requirements like this? Types of requirement Understanding what we can do Business processes create data Understanding dimensions and measures How these requirements are used Things to remember
2010 Data Management & Warehousing
21 Jan 2010
Why gather requirements like this?

Your opportunity to explain to us what you want to see from the system in a way that we can understand There are two parts to this:
US: Ensuring that you get the information that you need to run the business effectively YOU: Ensuring that we understand enough about what you want to quickly and effectively deliver that information
Success requires effective two way communication Requirements always change

Dont worry we know that things will be forgotten or change but once we have a good baseline it is much easier to refine and enhance the solution We will address how to update the requirements later
Types of requirements
There are two types of requirement we need:
Business Requirements What information do you want to see? (the data and how it needs to be grouped) This is the primary focus of the workshop Technical Requirements When do you want to see the information (Frequency of refresh and of reporting) How do you want the information formatted? (Tables, graphs, charts, etc.) Where do you want to see it? (Web, e-mail, RSS, application, etc.) Who should see the information? (Security, publication)
Understanding what we can do

We can only deliver data that is there
We capture as much as we can at the lowest level to use but your environment creates limitations This is true of every organisation
We have to prioritise which data we deal with

Whilst we try to deliver as much as possible as quickly as possible we have to ensure that the most important things are delivered first
We can only optimise what you ask us to optimise

Business intelligence solutions group and aggregate data to optimise it for reporting and presentation Whilst we will have all the data that is available it may take time to make it available if we dont know that it is required as a priority for reporting
Example Limitations
We only get a feed once a day from the source
LIMITATION: Data can only be refreshed daily
We only get source data in x units

LIMITATION: Limits the granularity of the reports (e.g. if the data is number of calls per hour, we can not report calls per minute)
The source data has data type discrepancies

LIMITATION: Over time this will negatively affect data quality (e.g. if 31st Feb consistently appears it how do we handle the data?)
We only get a subset of data from source system

LIMITATION: If we havent asked for it we wont get it LIMITATION: We may not be able to go back and get historical information if we change the subset of data
None of these are show stoppers, all can be changed as long as we know what we need
Business processes create data

There is a known state - a checkpoint
This is measurable using a set of criteria known as dimensions
Some process step is performed a flow There is now a new known state - another checkpoint
This is also measurable Some of the dimensions will have remained the same But some dimensions will be added and some removed
Reporting is the delivery of data for a given state or states

Reports should be designed to inform management decision making
Analysis is the attempt to gain understanding of the causes of the state change
Analysis should be designed to help improve the business process
You must have the reporting data before you can effectively perform analysis
Understanding Dimensions
Levels Hierarchy Values and Descriptions
Filters: Level = Value e.g. Month = December 2010

Typical Dimensions might include: Calendar Geography
Customer Channel
Product Partner
Manufacturer Discount Type

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Understanding Measures
Numeric Values
Examples: Quantities, Money, Time Basic Maths: Sum, Count, Maximum, Minimum Derived Maths: Average, StdDev, Rank
Linked to and described by Dimensions

Every measure relates to many dimensions Always relates to the lowest possible level of each hierarchy
Example:
Number (Measure) and Value (Measure) of Product (Dimension) sold on Date (Dimension) through Channel (Dimension)
How these requirements are used

Select Month County Count(Policy) Sum(Premium) Average(Premium) Rank(Policy) From Policies Calendar Geography Where And And And Group By Order By
Descriptions Basic Maths On Numeric Values Derived Maths On Numeric Values Measures Dimensions Filters Joins Levels Sorting
21 Jan 2010
Year = 2010 Country = England Policy Date = Calendar Date Policy Postcode = Geography Postcode Month County Rank(Policy)
to produce a report
Month Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 Jan-2010 County Portsmouth Greater London Southampton Luton Blackpool Leicester Southend-on-Sea Nottingham Bristol Slough Hull Reading Bournemouth Plymouth Brighton & Hove Derby West Midlands Middlesbrough Stoke-on-Trent Poole Torbay Merseyside Tyne and Wear Greater Manchester Halton Medway Warrington West Yorkshire Bracknell Forest Blackburn with Darwen Count(Policy) 4,956 4,851 4,707 4,424 4,064 4,020 3,935 3,919 3,844 3,724 3,621 3,607 3,549 3,169 3,104 3,065 2,905 2,580 2,569 2,144 2,131 2,090 2,025 2,017 1,515 1,320 1,086 1,084 1,049 1,027 Sum(Premium) 200,000.00 7,611,900.00 234,600.00 191,800.00 141,900.00 294,700.00 164,300.00 292,400.00 421,300.00 121,200.00 258,700.00 145,700.00 163,900.00 252,800.00 256,600.00 239,200.00 2,619,500.00 139,000.00 240,100.00 138,800.00 134,000.00 1,347,800.00 1,093,400.00 2,573,500.00 119,800.00 253,500.00 196,200.00 2,200,500.00 114,700.00 140,700.00 Average(Premium) 40.36 1,569.14 49.84 43.35 34.92 73.31 41.75 74.61 109.60 32.55 71.44 40.39 46.18 79.77 82.67 78.04 901.72 53.88 93.46 64.74 62.88 644.88 539.95 1,275.90 79.08 192.05 180.66 2,029.98 109.34 137.00 Rank(Policy) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
21 Jan 2010
or to produce a chart
5,000.00 4,500.00 4,000.00 3,500.00 3,000.00 2,500.00 2,000.00 1,500.00 1,000.00 500.00 0.00
Average(Premium) Count(Policy)
21 Jan 2010
Insurance Example
CHECKPOINT FLOW CHECKPOINT
REPORTING The quantity and value of quotes by: Quote Date Proposed Start Date Channel Personal Data
ANALYSIS Why do people convert? What are the common characteristics What are the differences
REPORTING The quantity and value of policies by: Policy Start/End Date Channel Personal Data
21 Jan 2010
More checkpoints
Anonymous quotes provided to aggregator
Flow
Anonymous quotes provided to website
Flow
Known quotes provided to website
At each subsequent checkpoint we typically get:
Flow
Quote conversion to policy
More dimensions more information to qualify the data Less transactional data less individual transactions involved
Things to remember
Keep your requirements reasonable
Can be sourced from existing source systems Will be used to affect your decision making Consider things in terms of MoSCoW: Must Have; Should Have; Could Have; Would Have Focus your time and effort on Must and Should Haves
Expect to be challenged by us
This is just to make sure that we understand everything by getting you to (re-)explain and justify
You are the experts in your business ...

We know how manage data to deliver business intelligence We know more than most about how data works See http://datamgmt.com/how-data-works Working together we can specify the optimal solution
Straw-man Proposal
A "straw-man proposal" is a simple proposal intended to generate discussion of its disadvantages and to provoke the generation of new and better proposals. Often, a straw man document will be prepared by one or two people prior to kicking off a larger project. In this way, the team can jump start their discussions with a document that is likely to contain many, but not all the key aspects to be discussed.
21 Jan 2010
Sources for Straw-man

Sources for the strawman: Other potential data sources:
21 Jan 2010
Straw-man Description
Measures Analyse by
21 Jan 2010
Next Steps
Do we need more time to add more requirements? How will we review the requirements? Who will help flesh out the technical requirements? Who will sign off the requirements? Any other questions?
21 Jan 2010
Simply Explained
http://geekandpoke.typepad.com
Geek & Poke
21 Jan 2010
How we record requirements
21 Jan 2010
Understanding the requirements gap
The difference between what was required when the development started and what is required when the development is delivered Overcome by: a) accepting and embracing it b) ccommunicating with users so everyone understands the time lag c) delivering in fast, small increments
21 Jan 2010
Thank You
21 Jan 2010

Gathering Business Requirements For Data Warehouses

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Gathering Business Requirements

An overview of the Data Management & Warehousing approach

Overview of the process