GO DW Assessment

8/8/2019 GO DW Assessment

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.

Data Warehouse

Assessments


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Definition

Reasons for assessments

Assessment Approach

Building the Team

Assembling Information

Using Leading Questions

Interviewing managers, users,

user support, technical staff

Reporting the findings Assessment Topics

Summary

AgendaAgenda


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What is it?What is it?


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To ensure:

Business objectives are met

Users are satisfied

Technical staff is working effectively

Corporate infrastructure is in place

DW / DM processes are working effectively

To ensure that tradeoffs are understood Data currency & integrity

Data availability

User satisfaction

Performance

Flexibility

Data Warehouse AssessmentsData Warehouse Assessments-- Why?Why?


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ASSESSMENTS

Readiness Assessment

In-Development

Assessments

Post-implementation

Assessment

DESIGN REVIEWS

Architectural Review

Data Warehouse Data

Model Review Data Transformation &

Cleansing Review

Programming Review

Code/Utility Review

Performance Review

Includes all of the above

Scheduling Assessments and ReviewsScheduling Assessments and Reviews


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Gather information

& Identify problemsInvestigate

Recommendationsto correct problems

JAD sessions

Interviews

Questionnaires

Documentation

Assess the current situation

The ApproachThe Approach


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Is the data

warehouse

a success?

Executives &

Managers

Users

Technical Staff

The ApproachThe Approach


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Team members

Need mix of skills to examine Assessment Topics

Must provide objective evaluation

Need interviewing skills and technical skills

Should understand best practices in the industry

Makes recommendations based on best practices

Each topic needs an assigned leader

Team may include 2-6 people (average)

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politics??

Building the TeamBuilding the Team


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Project scope & documented requirements

Business objectives of DW

Organization chart, including list of data warehouse staff, key

managers, and users

Roles & responsibilities and how assigned

Training programs for users and DW team

DW architecture description, including

data marts, ODS, DW, and relationships Standards, guidelines, & procedures

Assembling InformationAssembling Information


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Asking the right questions at the right time is the basis for

successful assessments

Leading questions provide a basic check list and should beprepared in advance

Drill down as far as necessary to obtain needed

information

DW assessments require more than

a checklist. . . . but a checklist helps!

Using Leading QuestionsUsing Leading Questions


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Questions:

Must be tailored for your situation

Printed questionnaires; may be anonymous

JAD sessions

One-on-one interviews

Always ask for additional comments

Leading questions are only a starting point

Answers point the way to

identifying weaknesses and

proposing improvements

?

Using Leading QuestionsUsing Leading Questions


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DW Strategy

Business

Value

User

SatisfactionOrganizational

Issues

Business

Requirements

Development

MethodologyDW

Architecture

Standards &

Guidelines

Vendor

Relationships

Assessment TopicsAssessment Topics


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Metadata

Strategy

Data

Modeling

Database

Design

DW

Administration

Data

Access &

Delivery

Performance

& Capacity

Future

Planning

Data

Management

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Assessment TopicsAssessment Topics


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Is the data warehouse a success?

Business value

Return on investment

Organizational issues

From your perspective, what are

its strong and weak points?

Did it meet strategic objectives?

Which ones?

Future plans for the DW or DM

Are there particular persons that we should be sure to talk with (in

addition to our present list)?

Sample Questions for Executives & ManagersSample Questions for Executives & Managers


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Why was the DW / DM built?

Discuss the following areas with appropriate members of the

technical staff:

User satisfaction

Standards & Guidelines

Metadata strategy

Data management processes

Performance and capacity planning

Data access and delivery issuesData modeling & database design

Future planning

Discuss the process &results of the processes

for each technical area

Sample Questions for Technical StaffSample Questions for Technical Staff


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Project starts with user requirements and will be judged against them

Why was the data warehouse built?

Were your special requirements considered?

Business value realized? Money saved? Improved efficiency? Most

important benefit realized?

What is the most important question that you cannot ask?

Technical staff responsive to new requirements?

Level of satisfaction with DW/DM, ease of

use, end-user tools, availability, etc.? Is data easy to use?

Sample Questions for UsersSample Questions for Users


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Adequately staffed?

Types of problems encountered?

Do you have problems addressing problems?

Adequate support from the technical staff?

Users adequately trained in data and tools?

User expectations well managed?

How could it be improved?

End User Support Help DeskEnd User Support Help Desk


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Summarize findings of interviews, JAD

sessions, questionnaires, and analysis of

documentationCover each assessment topic that was

addressed during the review

Following pages summarize sample issuesin each subject area

Building the ReportBuilding the Report


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What is the data

warehouse strategy?

Is it designed to fundamentally change

the way business decisions are made?

Does the strategy allow for

iterative development with increasing

benefits after each cycle?

DWStrategyDWStrategy


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How / who sets

priorities for DW

development?

Review procedures

for evaluating ROI

Business benefits

from using DW, DM,

or ODS?

Business ValueBusiness Value


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Review processes for:

Gathering requirements

Determining new requirements

Keeping requirements current

Identifying gaps between stated requirements and actual

capabilities

How well are current requirements met?

Suggest ideas for encouraging creative use ofexisting data

Business RequirementsBusiness Requirements


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Has an official strategic alliance been created between

the users and IT staff?

Is there a high level user sponsor?

Mission and objectives in line with corporate businessobjectives?

Sufficient budget allocated?

Organizational roadblocks?

Who are the users? How will they be involved?

How will the users be trained and supported?

What are the users expectations?

Organizational Issues: Leading QuestionsOrganizational Issues: Leading Questions


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Process in place for responding to user complaints about performance,

data quality, data availability, data integrity, and consistency?

Does the technical staff have the skills needed to support the DW?

Roles and responsibilities defined and assigned?

Source data documented?

What is the quality of the source data?

How will technical personnel track data usage and changing user

requirements?

End-user tools and development tools selected?

Organizational Issues: Leading QuestionsOrganizational Issues: Leading Questions


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How are data warehouse projects planned?

Does everyone understand definitions of

DW and data warehouse technology?

Effective methodology in place?Are RAD techniques used?

All phases and activities time-boxed?

Methodology flexible enough to accommodate projects of

varying sizes, ODS, DM, DW?

DWMethodologyDWMethodology


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Review use of DW, DM, ODS and their

relationships

Review effectiveness of current hardware /software / DW tools

Scalability?

How does the data flow?

DWArchitectureDWArchitecture


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Do you track data usage? Table level? Column level? Row

level?

Do you track trends in growth of specific tables?

How do you allocate space?

How do you determine what data

needs to be audited?

Do you know which users use which data?

Do you know which access paths are needed by various

users? How do you determine this?

What is your process for implementing new access paths?

Data ManagementData Management


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Review process of selecting source data, extraction, cleansing, and

transformation

Review processes for maintaining data quality

Are there problems with data consistency?

Identify opportunities for data

integration

How do you handle requests

for additional data?

How do you handle backup, recovery,reorganization, etc.?

Data ManagementData Management


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How do you measure performance in the DW?

Do you have service level agreements?

On what are they based?

How do you measure user satisfaction with performance?

How do you measure trends in performance?

Comparisons of today vs. another day? This week vs. last week?

How do you identify hot spots in databases?

How do you identify candidates for re-partitioning?

Do you have a scalable environment in terms of hardware and software?

Performance & Capacity PlanningPerformance & Capacity Planning


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Review existing metadata strategy

Locations and consistency between locationsProcesses for keeping it current

Accessibility to users and technical personnel

Metadata StrategyMetadata Strategy


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Review standards, guidelines, and

procedures, if availableRequirements gathering and documentation

Architecture guidelinesData and metadata

Database design, development, administration

Development

Data quality, cleansing, transformationetc.

Assess effectiveness

DWStandards, Guidelines, and ProceduresDWStandards, Guidelines, and Procedures


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DSS

EIS

Ad Hoc

Traditional

Data

Warehouse

Data

Mart

Data

Mart

Data

Mart

Data

Mining

Data Access & DeliveryData Access & Delivery


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What types of data modeling are used?Are they effective?

Compare with best practices

Where are models stored?

Are they integrated and reusable?

Do users have access to data models?

Which ones?

How do they use them?

Data ModelingData Modeling


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Review processes used to design databasesUsage of data models

Selection of DBMS

Design review processes (if applicable)

Design guidelines for specific DBMSs

Review database designs for selected subject areasMulti-level data architecture?

Managed data redundancy?

Compare with best practices

Database DesignDatabase Design


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Compile the results of all interviews, JAD sessions,

questionnaires, reviews, and analysis of documentation

Include the topic, findings, and recommendations for each

area analyzed

Level of detail will depend upon concerns raised by

interviewees

Concerns will require deeper analysis in selected areas

Findings will depend upon the

persons interviewed!

DW Assessment ReportDW Assessment Report


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Executives

&

Managers

UsersTechnical

Staff

Design

Development

Administration

Organization

Management

processes

Strategy

Business

Value

ROI

Summary of the ProcessSummary of the Process

Documents

GO DW Assessment