INTRO

CHAPTER 3

DEFINING BUSINESS

TOPIC 3.1
REQUIREMENTS

TOPIC 3.2
 3.1 Information Packages

TOPIC 3.3
 3.2 Requirements Gathering Methods
 3.3 Requirements Definition Document
Outline

EXERCISE
 INTRO
A data warehouse is an information
delivery system. It is not about

TOPIC 4.1
technology, but about
solving users’ problems and
providing strategic information to

TOPIC 4.2
the user. In the phase of
defining requirements, you need to
concentrate on what information

TOPIC 4.3
the users need, not so
much on how you are going to

EXERCISE
provide the required information.
 INTRO
Topic Outline

 Discuss how and why defining requirements is

TOPIC 3.1
different for a data warehouse
 Understand the role of business dimensions
 Learn about information packages and their use

TOPIC 3.2
in defining requirements
 Review methods for gathering requirements
 Grasp the significance of a formal requirements
definition document

TOPIC 3.3
EXERCISE
 ANALYSIS
REQUIREMENT

EXERCISE TOPIC 4.3 TOPIC 4.2 TOPIC 4.1 INTRO

 INTRO
The definition of requirements is

TOPIC 4.1
the user’s statement of how he or
she wants to do business, and the

TOPIC 4.2
information required to support
his or her new methods of
operations

TOPIC 4.3
EXERCISE
 INTRO
The requirements can be broadly
divided into two areas:

TOPIC 4.1
1 Functional requirements — written in user
terminology since it is user operations that are
being described.

TOPIC 4.2
2 Non-functional requirements –these are the
limitations and demands imposed upon the
computing solutions; such as architectural
plan, data storage specifications and

TOPIC 4.3
information system performance
expectations.

EXERCISE
 INTRO
Marketing Vice President
How much did my new product generate.
• Month by month, in the southern division, by customer demographic, by
sales office, relative to previous version, and compared to plan?

TOPIC 4.1
Marketing Manager
Give me sales statistics

TOPIC 4.2
• By products, summarized by product categories, daily, weekly, and monthly,
by sale districts, by distribution channels.

Financial Controller

TOPIC 4.3
Show me expenses
• Listing actual vs budget, by months, quarters, and annual, by budget line
items, by district, division, summarized for the whole company.

EXERCISE
Managers think in business dimensions
 INTRO
Dimensional Nature of Business Data

TOPIC 4.1
The business data of sales units (fact) is measured and
analyzed in three dimensional.

TOPIC 4.2
TOPIC 4.3
Product

Geography
Time

EXERCISE
 INTRO
Examples of Business
Facts and Dimensions
Supermarket Chain Manufacturing Company

TOPIC 4.1
Time Cust-ship-to
Time Promotion
Ship from
Sale Unit Shipment
Ship Mode

TOPIC 4.2
Store Product Deal Product

Insurance Business Customer

Agent Time
Time

TOPIC 4.3
Flight
Frequent
Claim
Claims Flyer Flights
Fare Class
Insured
Party
Status Status Airport
Policy
Airline Company

EXERCISE
 Information Package

EXERCISE TOPIC 4.3 TOPIC 4.2 TOPIC 4.1 INTRO

 INTRO
Information Packages

TOPIC 4.1
a novel idea for determining and recording
information requirements

TOPIC 4.2
for a data warehouse. This concept helps us to
give a concrete form to the various
insights, nebulous thoughts, and opinions
expressed during the process of collecting

TOPIC 4.3
requirements.
The information packages, put together while
collecting requirements, are
very useful for taking the development of the

EXERCISE
data warehouse to the next phases.
 INTRO
Information Packages
enables you to…

TOPIC 4.1
 Define the common subject areas
 Design key business metrics
 Decide how data must be presented

TOPIC 4.2
 Determine how users will aggregate or roll up
 Decide the data quantity for user analysis or
query


TOPIC 4.3
Decide how data will be accessed
 Establish data granularity
 Estimate data warehouse size
 Determine the frequency for data refreshing

EXERCISE
 Ascertain how information must be packaged
 Information Package.
>> Example

EXERCISE TOPIC 4.3 TOPIC 4.2 TOPIC 4.1 INTRO

 Information Package.
>> Example

EXERCISE TOPIC 4.3 TOPIC 4.2 TOPIC 4.1 INTRO

 REQUIREMENTS
GATHERING METHODS

EXERCISE TOPIC 4.3 TOPIC 4.2 TOPIC 4.1 INTRO

 INTRO
Who are the users
that can make use of the

TOPIC 4.1
information in the data
warehouse?

TOPIC 4.2
Where do you go for getting
the requirements?

TOPIC 4.3
EXERCISE
 INTRO
Basic techniques
Interviews

• Two or three persons at a time

TOPIC 4.1
• Easy to schedule
• Good approach when details are intricate
• Some users are comfortable only with one-on-one interviews
• Need good preparation to be effective
• Always conduct preinterview research
• Also encourage users to prepare for the interview

TOPIC 4.2
Group Sessions

• Groups of twenty or less persons at a time

• Use only after getting a baseline understanding of the requirements
•

TOPIC 4.3
Not good for initial data gathering
• Useful for confirming requirements
• Need to be very well organized

Review of Existing Documentation

EXERCISE
• Review of existing documentation can be done by the project team
without too much involvement from the users of the business units.
 INTRO
Interview Techniques

TOPIC 4.1
• Select and train the project team members
conducting the interviews
• Assign specific roles for each team member (lead
interviewer/scribe)

TOPIC 4.2
• Prepare list of users to be interviewed and prepare
broad schedule
• List your expectations from each set of interviews
• Complete pre-interview research

TOPIC 4.3
• Prepare interview questionnaires
• Prepare the users for the interviews
• Conduct a kick-off meeting of all users to be

EXERCISE
interviewed
 INTRO
Three Basic Ways of Structuring
Interviews
• Pyramid Structure: Starting from

TOPIC 4.1
closed questions, then gradually
expand into open territory.

TOPIC 4.2
• Funnel Structure: The reverse of
pyramid structure approach.

TOPIC 4.3
• Diamond-Shaped: A combination
of the two above structures.

EXERCISE
 INTRO
How to design Questionnaires?

TOPIC 4.1
• State type and choices of questions
– Choice of language is important
– Short and precise.
• Application of scales

TOPIC 4.2
• Design the questionnaire by start the
questionnaire with less controversial, highly
important questions.

TOPIC 4.3
– Consistent and pleasing.
• Administering questionnaire
– Decide who gets the questionnaire and how to

EXERCISE
distribute.
 INTRO
Two Types of Questions – Open-End
Questions vs. Closed Questions

TOPIC 4.1
Open-ended interview questions
Open describes the interviewee’s options for
responding. They are open.

TOPIC 4.2
Advantages:
• Putting the interviewee at ease
• Allowing more spontaneity

TOPIC 4.3
Disadvantages:
• Possibly losing control of the interview
• May not get the types of answers you want

EXERCISE
 INTRO
Two Types of Questions – Open-End
Questions vs. Closed Questions

TOPIC 4.1
Closed interview questions
Such as “ How many subordinates do you
have?

TOPIC 4.2
Benefits:
• Getting to relevant data
• Keeping control over the interview

TOPIC 4.3
Drawbacks:
• Failing to obtain rich detail

EXERCISE
• Intimidating the interviewee
 INTRO
INTRO
Warning signs for a data warehouse
JAD Methodology
project
• JAD sessions are used to scope the project. Each session

2.1
TOPIC 4.1
should last two to three day. They are very focused and

TOPIC
fast-paced.

• JAD sessions can be very formal and follow strict guidelines

or be informal group sessions.

TOPIC 4.2
TOPIC2.2
4.3
TOPIC2.3
TOPIC
EXERCISE
EXERCISE
 INTRO
INTRO
JAD
Warning Methodology
signs for a data warehouse
project
 JAD sessions (also called facilitated session) are used to

2.1
TOPIC 4.1
gather information and feedback and confirm the results of

TOPIC
requirements gathering.

 JAD sessions replace the traditional way of conducting a

series of interviews on a one-to-one basis with the users.

4.2
TOPIC2.2
TOPIC
Advantages:
• Achieving consensus during the session when multiple
sources of information exist,
• raising and addressing issues or assigning them for

4.3
TOPIC2.3
resolution, and immediately confirming information.

TOPIC
EXERCISE
EXERCISE
 INTRO
INTRO
JAD Five-phased
Warning approach:
signs for a data warehouse
project

2.1
TOPIC 4.1
TOPIC
Project
Definition

Research

4.2
TOPIC2.2
TOPIC
Preparation

4.3
TOPIC2.3
TOPIC
JAD Sessions

Final

EXERCISE
EXERCISE
Document
 INTRO
INTRO
JAD Team:

TOPIC 4.1
Executive sponsor—Person controlling the funding, providing the
direction, and empowering the team members

Facilitator—Person guiding the team throughout the JAD

process

TOPIC 4.2
Scribe—Person designated to record all decisions

Full-time participants—Everyone involved in making decisions

about the data warehouse

TOPIC 4.3
On-call participants—Persons affected by the project, but only in
specific areas

EXERCISE
Observers—Persons who would like to sit in on specific sessions
without participatingin the decision making
 INTRO
Review of Existing Documentation

TOPIC 4.1
Review of existing documentation can be done by
the project team without too much involvement
from the users of the business units. Scheduling of

TOPIC 4.2
the review of existing documentation involves only
the members of the project team.

TOPIC 4.3
EXERCISE
 INTRO
Review of Existing Documentation

TOPIC 4.1
• Documentation from user departments.
– Review in details the business process and business
procedures.

TOPIC 4.2
• Documentation from IT
– Availability on source systems.
– DBAs will provides data structures, individual data

TOPIC 4.3
elements, attributes, value domains, and relationship
among fields and data structures

EXERCISE
 INTRO
Review of Existing Documentation

TOPIC 4.1
Review of existing documentation can be done by
the project team without too much involvement
from the users of the business units. Scheduling of

TOPIC 4.2
the review of existing documentation involves only
the members of the project team.

TOPIC 4.3
EXERCISE
 INTRO
Requirements Definition : Scope and
Content
 Data sources

TOPIC 4.1
• Available data sources
• Data structures within the data sources
• Location of the data sources
• Operating systems, networks, protocols, and client architectures.
• Data extraction procedures.
• Availability of historical data.

TOPIC 4.2
 Data transformation
• Indicate where the data about your metrics and business
dimensions will come from.
• Describe the merging, conversion, and splitting that need to take
place before moving the data into the data warehouse.

TOPIC 4.3
 Data storage
• Storage requirements.
• Detailed and summary data.
• Estimate how much historical and archived data needs to be in the
data warehouse.

EXERCISE
 INTRO
Requirements Definition : Scope and
Content cont..
 Information delivery to the users

TOPIC 4.1
• Drill-down analysis
• Roll-up analysis
• Drill-through analysis
• Slicing and dicing analysis
• Ad hoc reports

TOPIC 4.2
• Online monitoring tools

 Information package diagrams

TOPIC 4.3
EXERCISE
 INTRO
Requirements Definition Document Outline

1. Introduction.

TOPIC 4.1
2. General requirements descriptions.
3. Specific requirements.
4. information packages.

TOPIC 4.2
5. Other requirements. (data extract frequencies, data
loading methods, and locations )
6. User expectations.
7. User participation and sign-off.

TOPIC 4.3
8. General implementation plan.

EXERCISE
 INTRO
SUMMARY
• Unlike the requirements for an operational system, the requirements for a data

TOPIC 4.1
warehouse are quite nebulous.
• Business data is dimensional in nature and the users of the data warehouse think in
terms of business dimensions.
• A requirements definition for the data warehouse can, therefore, be based on business
dimensions such as product, geography, time, and promotion.
• Information packages—a new concept—are the backbone of the requirements

TOPIC 4.2
definition.
• An information package records the critical measurements or facts and business
dimensions along which the facts are normally analyzed.
• Interviews and group sessions are standard methods for collecting requirements.
• Key people to be interviewed or to be included in group sessions are senior executives
(including the sponsors), departmental managers, business analysts, and operational

TOPIC 4.3
systems DBAs.
• Review all existing documentation of related operational systems.
• Scope and content of the requirements definition document include data sources,
data transformation, data storage, information delivery, and information package
diagrams.

EXERCISE
 INTRO
Review Questions
BigBook, Inc. is a large book distributor with domestic and

TOPIC 4.1
international distribution channels. The company orders
from publishers and distributes publications to all the
leading booksellers. Initially, you want to build a data
warehouse to analyze shipments that are made from the

TOPIC 4.2
company’s many warehouses. Determine the metrics or
facts and the business dimensions. Prepare an information
package diagram.

TOPIC 4.3
EXERCISE
 INTRO
Review Questions
CarBest Sdn. Bhd. is one of the most popular car rental companies in Subang area.

TOPIC 4.1
This company plan to have a data warehouse that would be useful for their mid
management level to run some analysis. You are working as a system analyst in the
IT department of this company and have been asked by the manager to analyze the
data requirement for the data warehouse.
 
Suppose that a data warehouse consists of the four dimensional table as follows;

TOPIC 4.2
Customer contains details such as customer number, name, sex, age, address and
credit card number.
Car held data of car plate number, manufacturer, color, number of seats, capacity
and category where categories are small, medium, luxury and van.
Time contains time ID, hour, day, week, month and year.
Rental held data of rental number, Start date, Finish date, Duration, Car ID, Customer

TOPIC 4.3
ID.
 
The company wants to give a discount to those customers that have rented at least
three times and they need this system to produce the analysis on the total of
customer rents the particular car. Discount given depends on amount spent for all
rentals for each customer. Besides that, the company wants to analyze total of
revenue gain on the past few years.

EXERCISE
 
Based on the scenario given,
 Convert the business requirement into information packages diagram.
 INTRO
REFERENCES
Ponniah, P. (2011). Data warehousing fundamentals for IT

TOPIC 4.1
professionals. John Wiley & Sons..

Image sources : Google.Com

TOPIC 4.2
TOPIC 4.3
EXERCISE