My first Publication Agile-Data-Warehouse-Design-eBook

18 Chapter 1 Agile Dimensional Modeling DW/BI benefits from agile dimensional modeling Agile dimensional modeling focuses on business processes rather than reports Agile dimensional modeling creates flexible, report- neutral designs Agile modeling enables proactive DW/BI to influence operational system development Evolutionary modeling supports accretive BI requirements Collaborative modeling teaches stakeholders to think dimensionally Collaborative modeling creates stakeholder pride in the data warehouse By taking advantage of dimensional modeling’s unit of discovery — a business process worth measuring — agile data modeling has arguably greater benefits for DW/BI than any other type of database project: Agile modeling avoids the ‘analysis paralysis’ caused by trying to discover the ‘right’ reports amongst the large (potentially infinite?) number of volatile, con- stantly re-prioritized requests in the BI backlog. Instead, agile dimensional modeling gets everyone to focus on the far smaller (finite) number of relatively stable business processes that stakeholders want to measure now or next. Agile dimensional modeling avoids the need to decode detailed business events from current summary report definitions. Modeling business processes without the blinkers of specific report requests produces more flexible, report-neutral, enterprise-wide data warehouse designs. Agile data modeling can break the “data then requirements” stalemate that exists for DW/BI just before a new operational system is implemented. Proac- tive agile dimensional modeling enables BI stakeholders to define new business processes from a measurement perspective and provide timely BI input to op- erational application development or package configuration. Agile modeling’s evolutionary approach matches the accretive nature of genu- ine BI requirements. By following hands-on BI prototyping and/or real BI us- age, iterative and incremental dimensional modeling allows stakeholders to (re)define their real data requirements. Many of the stakeholders involved in collaborative modeling will become direct users of the finished dimensional data models. Doing some form of dimen- sional modeling with these future BI users is an opportunity to teach them to think dimensionally about their data and define common, conformed dimen- sions and facts from the outset. Collaborative modeling fully engages stakeholders in the design process, making them far more enthusiastic about the resultant data warehouse. It be- comes their data warehouse, they feel invested in the data model and don’t need to be trained to understand what it means. It contains their consensus on data terms because it is designed directly by them: groups of relevant business experts rather than the distillation of many individual report requests inter- preted by the IT department. Never underestimate the affection stakeholders will have for data models that they themselves (help) create.

My first Publication Agile-Data-Warehouse-Design-eBook | Page 39