Usage of Information Unpredictable

Usage of Information Unpredictable

Let us imagine you are building an operational system for order processing in your company. For gathering requirements, you interview the users in the Order Processing department. The users will list all the functions that need to be performed. They will inform you how they receive the orders, check stock, verify customers' credit arrangements, price the order determine the shipping arrangements. and route the order to the appropriate ware-house. They will show you how they %mild like the various data elements to be presented on the GUI (graphical user interface) screen for the application. The users will also give you a list of reports they would need from the order processing application. They writ be able to let you know how and when they would use the application daily.

In providing inhumation about the requirements hr an operational 'system, the users are able to give you precise details of the required functions, information content, and us-age patterns. In striking contrast, roc a data warehousing system, the users are generally unable to define their requirements clearly. They cannot define precisely what information they really want from the data warehouse, nor can they express they would like to use the information or process it.

For most or the users, this could be the very first data warehouse they are being exposed to. The users are familiar with operational systems because they use these in their daily work, so they are able to visualize the requirements for other new operational systems. They cannot relate a data warehouse system to anything they have used before.

If therefore, the whole process of defining requirements for a data warehouse is so nebulous, how can you proceed as one or the analysts in the data warehouse project'? You are in a quandary. To be on the safe side, do you then include every piece of data you think the users will be able to use? How can you build something the users are unable to define clearly and precisely'?

Initially, you may collect data on the overall business of the organization. You may cheek on the industry's best practices. You may gather some business rules guiding the day-to-day decision making. You may find out how products are developed and marketed. But these arc generalities and are not sufficient to determine detailed requirements.