The Cary, N.C.-based SAS Institute [http://www.sas.com/new/checklists.html], one of the top privately-held business technology vendors today, has compiled a checklist of what they believe to be indispensable steps to data warehouse success. The list centers on what they think to be the primary objective with any data warehouse: identify the business areas or processes that have the most positive impact on the strategic long-term goals and vision of the organization. And using the warehouse to optimize that:
– State your corporate goals.
– State your corporate vision.
– List the business areas, processes, and units within your organization.
– List the subset that is most subject to creativity and individuality and least geared toward automation.
– Prioritize these business areas in terms of the desired positive impact and contribution to corporate goals and vision.
– List your top business priority area.
– List the key topics/subjects — product, customer, quality, sales, marketing, manpower, or others — that best represent the business area.
– List those competitors, suppliers or targeted companies that excel in this area and evaluate why they excel. This is to provide further foundation for your data warehousing measures of success.
“You have now selected the business area, the topics, and areas of comparison for your initial data warehousing project,” SAS explains. Doing your homework this way will greatly increase the commitment within your organization for the data warehousing project.
– Gain widespread support for a data warehousing project through constant reinforcement of the project’s objectives and its contribution to the success of your organization. This should be based on the practical information above to ensure the project stays relevant to your organization.
– Choose the highest corporate sponsor possible for the data warehousing project. This person should have a vested interest in the success of the project.
– Choose a high-level interdepartmental project team that includes both decision makers and I.T. specialists. All should be motivated towards the project and have a reputation for working effectively in mixed project teams.
Now a key step — choosing a list of items for your first data warehousing project that can show immediate benefit for your company:
– Gain commitment to invest the manpower necessary for project success.
– Agree on ownership of the project.
– Agree on measures of success for both the project and for each team member.
– Ensure that both the business and the I.T. sides of your organization are unified in their efforts to ensure project success.
– Select reliable and competent partners that can provide a complete data warehousing solution to ensure the success of the project.
– On completion of the first data warehousing project, make its success known to others in the organization. If implemented correctly, the success will be clearly visible to all involved since it directly relates to your organization’s goals and vision.
– Return to your business area/process list and re-prioritize. Then choose the next project to extend your data warehouse.
Next week: The business success list
