The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit

Program/Project Management

BI

Application

Development

Physical

Design

ETL

Design &

Development

Dimensional

Modeling

Product

Selection &

Installation

Business

Requirements

Definition

Technical

Architecture

Design

Program/

Project

Planning

Deployment

Growth

Maintenance

BI

Application

Design

CHAPTER 2

Launching and

Managing the

Project/Program

N

ow that you have a high level understanding of the Kimball Lifecycle

approach and core vocabulary, it is time to dig in and get started. This

chapter explores the project and program planning and management boxes of

the Lifecycle diagram.

The chapter is organized into four major sections. The first section focuses on

defining your initial data warehouse/business intelligence (DW/BI) project.

It provides advice and guidelines for getting started with your initiative,

from assessing readiness through scoping and justification for funding. The

second section concentrates on detailed project planning activities, including

staffing and project plan development. From there, we discuss considerations

for keeping your DW/BI project on track. Last, we describe best practices for

managing the overall DW/BI program and coordinating across projects.

This chapter is geared toward people responsible for the DW/BI project

or program, regardless of whether they are part of the information technol-

ogy (IT) or functional business organization. Because a successful DW/BI

effort depends on a profound IT and business partnership, management

from both groups should peruse this chapter to better understand the overall

project/program landscape and their essential roles. Other project team mem-

bers would also benefit from a common understanding of these planning and

management challenges and recommendations, but it is not required that they

read this chapter in depth.

15