Is Data Warehouse development ever complete?
During the launch of a data warehouse project There are schedules and milestones published for everyone to mark on their calendar. A good portion of these milestones are met, the data model is reviewed, development is done, data is loaded, dashboards are created, reports generated and the users are happy right?
Image via Wikipedia
Well, one would hope.
Invariably there is always one more question. How hard would it be to add this metric?
Sometimes it is just a matter of spinning out a new report, new dashboard or even new report. Sometimes the question comes requiring data from an application that did not even exist when the data warehouse project was started. Now the architect has to go back and do integration work to incorporate the data source into the data warehouse, perhaps new modeling needs to be done, perhaps this requires some time for ETL development, sometimes it is just some front end business intelligence work that needs to be done.
Once that is deployed does the data warehouse answer all questions for the enterprise? Can the project then be said to be complete, done and over?
I think perhaps not.
Most data warehouse projects I have worked on have been released in phases. Once a phase is done and users are happy with it we move on to the next phase. Occasionally we have to go back and modify, for various reasons, things that we have already completed and put into production. Is it ever complete? Is it ever done?
I think a data warehouse requires no more modifications in only one case.
When the company no longer exists.
So long as the enterprise is vibrant and interacting with customers, suppliers, vendors and the like. So long as data comes in and goes out of the organization development of the data warehouse will need to continue. It may not be as intense as at the beginning of the original project, but development will need to be done.
So long as the enterprise lives, the data warehouse lives and changes.
During the launch of a data warehouse project There are schedules and milestones published for everyone to mark on their calendar. A good portion of these milestones are met, the data model is reviewed, development is done, data is loaded, dashboards are created, reports generated and the users are happy right?
Image via WikipediaWell, one would hope.
Invariably there is always one more question. How hard would it be to add this metric?
Sometimes it is just a matter of spinning out a new report, new dashboard or even new report. Sometimes the question comes requiring data from an application that did not even exist when the data warehouse project was started. Now the architect has to go back and do integration work to incorporate the data source into the data warehouse, perhaps new modeling needs to be done, perhaps this requires some time for ETL development, sometimes it is just some front end business intelligence work that needs to be done.
Once that is deployed does the data warehouse answer all questions for the enterprise? Can the project then be said to be complete, done and over?
I think perhaps not.
Most data warehouse projects I have worked on have been released in phases. Once a phase is done and users are happy with it we move on to the next phase. Occasionally we have to go back and modify, for various reasons, things that we have already completed and put into production. Is it ever complete? Is it ever done?
I think a data warehouse requires no more modifications in only one case.
When the company no longer exists.
So long as the enterprise is vibrant and interacting with customers, suppliers, vendors and the like. So long as data comes in and goes out of the organization development of the data warehouse will need to continue. It may not be as intense as at the beginning of the original project, but development will need to be done.
So long as the enterprise lives, the data warehouse lives and changes.
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