The Kimball Group Reader: Relentlessly Practical Tools for Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence

Chapter 14. Maintenance and Growth Considerations

Congratulations! You've just about reached the goal line. But don't start celebrating quite yet. You still need to keep your eye on the ball as you deploy and then enter the maintenance end zone.

This chapter is divided into two sections. The first provides recommendations surrounding deployment. Then we turn our attention to maintenance issues, starting with checkups to assess the health of your DW/BI system, followed by prescriptive plans to address common sponsorship, usage, architecture, and data maladies.

Deploying Successfully

Deployment demands significant upfront planning prior to the big event. In this section, we discuss the advance preparation required for operations and marketing, as well as considerations when rolling out subsequent projects focused on new business processes.

14.1 Don't Forget the Owner's Manual

Joy Mundy, Intelligent Enterprise, Jul 1, 2005

Data warehouse teams often postpone thinking about the ongoing operations of their new DW/BI systems until they're nearly in production. It's too late to start designing your operating procedures when deployment deadlines are looming and users are clamoring for data and reports. The train has already left the station. You'll be making stuff up as you go along, inevitably making mistakes.

Think about two sets of considerations with respect to the ongoing operations of your production DW/BI systems. The first set revolves around users: What information do they need to use ...