The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit

8 Chapter 1 ■ Introducing the Kimball Lifecycle

critical that deployment be well orchestrated; deployment should be deferred

if all the pieces, such as training, documentation, and validated data, are not

ready for prime time release.

Maintenance

Once the DW/BI system is in production, technical operational tasks are

necessary to keep the system performing optimally, including usage monitor-

ing, performance tuning, index maintenance, and system backup. You must

also continue focusing on the business users with ongoing support, educa-

tion, and communication. These maintenance issues and associated tasks are

discussed in Chapter 13.

Growth

If you have done your job well, the DW/BI system is bound to expand and

evolve to deliver more value to the business. Unlike traditional systems devel-

opment initiatives, change should be viewed as a sign of success, not failure.

Prioritization processes must be established to deal with the ongoing business

demand. We then go back to the beginning of the Lifecycle, leveraging and

building upon the foundation that has already been established, while turning

our attention to the new requirements. Chapter 14 details recommendations

to address the long-term health and growth of your DW/BI environment.

Using the Lifecycle Roadmap

The Kimball Lifecycle diagram in Figure 1-1 illustrates the general flow of

a DW/BI implementation. It identifies task sequencing and highlights the

activities that should happen concurrently throughout the technology, data,

and BI application tracks.

The Lifecycle diagram, however, does not attempt to reflect an absolute

project timeline. Each box in Figure 1-1 is the same width, with the excep-

tion of program/project management. If you have any experience with data

warehousing and business intelligence, you know that the resources and time

required for each Lifecycle box are not equal. Clearly, the reader should not

lay a ruler along the bottom of the diagram and divide the tasks into timeline

months; focus on sequencing and concurrency, not absolute timelines.

As with most approaches, you may need to customize the Kimball Lifecycle

to address the unique needs of your organization. If this is the case, we applaud

your adoption of the framework, as well as your creativity. Truth be told, we

usually tailor the specific Lifecycle tasks for each new project. Throughout

this book, we attempt to describe nearly everything you need to think about

during the design, development, and deployment of a DW/BI solution. Don’t