List of Exercises

Some of these articles do not have a strategic focus. This is ok, as data warehousing has been discussed in our course - the articles on this page are aimed to deepen your understanding of the concepts.

Describe the ASAP methodology (AcceleratedSAP) for SAP BI Projects.

The methodology has the following phases:

1. Project Preparation
2. Business Blueprint
3. Realization
4. Final Preparation
5. Go Live & Support

Make sure that you only provide a overview (history, current, tools, etc.). Make sure that your fellow students are able to write dedicated articles for the 5 phases (see below).

Describe the Project Preparation phase of the ASAP methodology.

Describe the Business Blueprint phase of the ASAP methodology.

Describe the Realization phase of the ASAP methodology.

Describe the Final Preparation phase of the ASAP methodology.

Describe the Go Live & Support phase of the ASAP methodology.

Describe one of the following topics of Agile Data Warehousing, taken from http://www.agiledata.org/essays/dataWarehousingBestPractices.html:

• Agile Model Driven Development, see http://www.agilemodeling.com/essays/amdd.htm
• Initial architecture modeling, see http://www.agiledata.org/essays/dataWarehousingBestPractices.html
• Model storming, see http://www.agilemodeling.com/essays/modelStorming.htm
• Agile Requirements Change Management , see http://www.agilemodeling.com/essays/changeManagement.htm

Describe considerations for the project environment of a BI strategy, including:

• Project plan template
• Project organization
• Name conventions
• Presentation concept
• Technical standards
• Access rights concept
• Master data

see 01011000.pdf

BI Project Strategy: Project Environment

Describe name conventions in detail. see 01011003.pdf

name_conventions

Describe project organization in detail. see 01011004.pdf

project_organization

Describe considerations for the business requirements analysis of a BI strategy, including:

• Process analysis / GAP analysis
• Object database
• Reporting requirements

see 01011000.pdf

business_requirements_analysis

Describe considerations for the project implementation of a BI strategy, including:

• Technical blue print
• System environment
• Documentation
• Data-layer concept/data flow concept
• Data transportation
• Roll-out strategies

see 01011000.pdf

BI Project Strategy: Project Implementation

Describe considerations for the finalization phase of a BI strategy, including:

• Initial data load
• Test organization

see 01011000.pdf

finalization

Describe considerations for the system optimization phase of a BI strategy, including:

• System optimization
• Backup and archive concept

see 01011000.pdf

system_optimization

There are two different approaches for data warehouse design (the way the dimensions and facts are organized): snow flake design and star schema.

Describe this article from a technical view for users who want to build their own DWH solution. You should have knowledge of database design and SQL.

snow_flake

Describe Multidimensional Expressions, a query language for querying multidimensional data cubes. Give examples for queries and compare it to SQL or other, similar query languages. You can add a glossary entry for sql as well: sql

mdx

A dimension often contains master data, for example customer information (phone numbers, addresses, etc), product information, etc. This data is not primary focus of the data analysis performed in data warehouses.

Describe this concept for business users.

dimensions

A dimension often contains master data, for example customer information (phone numbers, addresses, etc), product information, etc. This data is not primary focus of the data analysis performed in data warehouses.

Describe this concept from a technical perspective for users who are planning to build their own DWH solution. Use terms such as primary key, foreign key, index, etc.

dimensional_table

A slowly changing dimension contains data that, as the name says, is slowly changing. For example, customers might change their address every couple of years.

Describe the concept for technical users.

scd

This article focuses on the top-down approach of DWH projects. Similar to the bottom-up article, your target audience are project managers who need to decide which approach to use. Help them by providing them all information to make their decision.

top_down

Another approach for DWH projects is the hybrid approach, a combination of top-down and bottom-up methodology. Again, your target audience are project managers who need to decide which approach to use. Help them by providing them all information to make their decision.

hybrid_approach

Describe the federated approach. Again, your target audience are project managers who need to decide which approach to use. Help them by providing them all information to make their decision.

federated_approach

Describe the following DWH processes:

• Metadata Management
• ETL
• Reporting
• Charting
• Analysis

Try to balance the length of each description.

processes

What is metadata? Describe this DWH concept for business users or participants in a DWH design group.

metadata

What is technical metadata? Describe this DWH concept for business users or participants in a DWH design group.

technical

What is business metadata? Describe this DWH concept for business users or participants in a DWH design group.

business

What is process metadata? Describe this DWH concept for business users or participants in a DWH design group.

process

What metadata tools are available? Describe this DWH concept for business users or participants in a DWH design group.

tools

Describe one of the following trends, taken from ¹⁾. Describe the trend for business users or participants in a DWH design group. Make sure to supply more than the given resource.

• Optimization and Performance
• Data Warehouse Appliances
• Column-Store DBMSs
• The Intensive POC
• Data Warehouse Mixed Workloads
• In-Memory DBMSs
• Data Warehouse as a Service
• Data Warehouse Cloud
• Using an Open-Source DBMS to Deploy the Data Warehouse

Describe the roles and responsiblities of a data warehouse team. Use http://www.information-management.com/infodirect/20011221/4447-1.html as one of your sources, but do a more througout search for your sources.

roles_responsibilities

Describe one of the following trends, taken from ²⁾. Describe the trend for business users or participants in a DWH design group. Make sure to supply more than the given resource.

• ETL technology shipping “at no extra charge” with the underlying relational database
• Integrate with ERP and CRM packages:
• Integrate with XML
• Integrate with message brokers
• Data Quality

Describe the virtual ETL approach³⁾

virtual_etl

Describe parallel ETL handling⁴⁾

parallel_etl

Describe how to handle key in ETL processing⁵⁾

etl_key_handling

Describe a real-life ETL cycle. It could consist of the following steps (from Wikipedia⁶⁾:

1. Cycle initiation
2. Build reference data
3. Extract (from sources)
4. Validate
5. Transform (clean, apply business rules, check for data integrity, create aggregates or disaggregates)
6. Stage (load into staging tables, if used)
7. Audit reports (for example, on compliance with business rules. Also, in case of failure, helps to diagnose/repair)
8. Publish (to target tables)
9. Archive
10. Clean up

real_life_cycle

An interesting type of contribution is a (simple) case study. By doing so, you should describe the use of data warehouse technology in your organization (which should be identified in the text):

• What are the reasons and goals for using a data warehouse?
• What went well? What didn't?
• What would you do different or recommend to your peers?

A case study is only useful if you can clearly identify the organization in this public Wiki (you should obtain permission if you are unsure). The name of the data warehouse vendor is of interest as well. Other than that, you should avoid to identify other organizations (such as consulting companies).

Please contact me before starting to work on this exercise and provide the following information:

• Name of the organization,
• that you are allowed to publish this work,
• structure and topics of the case study.

http://www.b-eye-network.com/view/15436