9/15/2014
The role of a business analyst for a data warehouse project is often conflicting and confusing. - Information Management Online Article
The role of a business analyst for a data warehouse
project is often conflicting and confusing.
By Joe Oates and Sid Adelman and Michael Jennings and Clay Rehm and Nancy Williams
JAN 13, 2003 1:00am ET
The role of a business analyst for a data warehouse project is often conflicting and confusing. Can
Q: you establish how a business analyst is a key person involved in the complete cycle of a DW project,
and how imperative it is for this role to have thorough understanding of all DW aspects and not just
the business processes?
A: Sid Adelman’s Answer: The business analyst is often from IT but is very knowledgeable about the business,
its processes and the operational data that supports the business. The business analyst will meet with a broad
range of users and will capture their standard, traditional decision support requirements. If the business
analyst is very good, the analyst will be able to help the business people identify additional possibilities and
"killer" applications that would give the organization a significant boost in revenue, cost reduction or customer
satisfaction. The business analyst will facilitate discussions and help the business people anticipate future
needs and opportunities.
The business analyst will organize and run joint application development (JAD) sessions with different groups
of users. Together, they will brainstorm, explore options, weigh approaches and make decisions on which data
and which decision support applications would be most beneficial.
The business analyst does not need to know all the technical aspects of the data warehouse but should know
how the major pieces fit together.
Mike Jennings’ Answer: Business analysts (BA) have the overall responsibility of being the liaison and
advocate for the end users of the data warehouse. They work closely with the users to understand the current
state of information availability in the enterprise and then identify future needs based on their analysis of
business requirements, current state environments, gap analysis, future state warehousing implementation.
The BA must have an experience in the business functional area (e.g., sales, financial, CRM, marketing, HR,
etc.) in order to effectively work with the users. They identify the source systems and data required in the data
warehouse environment to meet the users current and potentially future needs. The BA performs gap analysis
between the current state and future data warehouse environment identifying data gaps and quality issues
plus recommends potential solutions. They work closely with the data warehouse development team to ensure
user requirements and issues are being addressed while controlling scope. The BA has to have a thorough
understanding ETL processing methods, underlying data warehouse data models, security, and capabilities of
the front-end delivery products. They are responsible for overall coordination of user acceptance testing and
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The role of a business analyst for a data warehouse project is often conflicting and confusing. - Information Management Online Article
training. The BA is responsible for ensuring that the final data warehouse implementation will meet the user
expectations.
Joe Oates’ Answer: A business analyst is a key position in a data warehouse project. Taking a broad
definition of what a business analyst is in a data warehouse project; a data warehouse business analyst is
responsible for the following activities:
Understand the business users’ requirements for information and communicate them to the rest of
the data warehouse team;
Lead and conduct interviewing task;
Lead interview documentation;
Assist DW data analyst in analyzing existing reports and identifying iteration metrics;
Lead preparation of data warehouse requirements document
Assist data analyst in mapping task;
Analyze existing reports;
Lead the identification and documentation of business metrics ;
Determine systems of record with the assistance of appropriate source system experts;
Help identify potential sources of data for the data warehouse;
Oversee testing of data acquisition processes and their implementation into production;
Act as consultant to the ETL and front-end programmers.
Depending on how technical a business analyst is, he or she may also:
Help data modelers prepare models, and
Review models to ascertain that requirements are met.
Clay Rehm’s Answer: I believe that the business analyst on a data warehouse project is the most important
role. Without this role, you do not have someone who understands both the business requirements and the
technical requirements and solutions. The business analyst has a very strong understanding of the specific
business processes being addressed, along with the ability to bridge the gap between the business community
and the technical community. They communicate business rules and user requirements to the data warehouse
team. They validate the quality of data and work to improve data quality. They test and validate the data and
data delivery mechanisms for a data warehouse project. They provide constructive feedback to the DW team
so they can make modifications as necessary before the final rollout.
A good business analyst is difficult to find because this person needs business understanding, technical skills
and most important of all, great communication skills.
Nancy Williams’ Answer: The business analyst is a key person on the data warehouse project team and
needs to be involved throughout the development cycle. The business analyst’s understanding of the business
processes and related information needs and source system data is key to designing and developing a data
mart that supports business user’s needs. Since business users are not always available when needed, the
business analyst is often the project team member that fills this void, providing the business perspective
needed for project success. Once information requirements are defined, the business analyst is often involved
in designing and validating the logical data model that provides a different representation of these
requirements. They also play a role in data mart design and prototyping and are involved in
developing/validating source target mappings and transformation logic required to support information
requirements. The business analyst can also assist in identifying data quality problems and in determining
options for how they will be handled. In many organizations they also play a role in testing and validation and
in delivering user training. Finally, the business analyst is often the person charged with developing and
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The role of a business analyst for a data warehouse project is often conflicting and confusing. - Information Management Online Article
managing project documentation deliverables.
Joe Oates is an internationally known speaker, author and consultant on data warehousing. Oates has more than
30 years of experience in the successful management and technical development of business, real-time and data
warehouse applications for industry and government clients. He has designed or helped design and implement
more than 30 successful data warehouse projects.
Sid Adelman is a principal in Sid Adelman & Associates, an organization specializing in planning and implementing
data warehouses, in data warehouse and BI assessments, and in establishing effective data architectures and
strategies. He is a regular speaker at DW conferences. Adelman chairs the "Ask the Experts" column on
www.dmreview.com. He is a frequent contributor to journals that focus on data warehousing. He co-authored Data
Warehouse Project Management and is the principal author on Impossible Data Warehouse Situations with
Solutions from the Experts and Data Strategy. He can be reached at (818) 783-9634 or visit his Web site at
www.sidadelman.com.
Michael Jennings is a recognized industry expert in enterprise information management. He has more than twenty
years of information technology experience in the healthcare, telecommunications, insurance, banking,
manufacturing and logistics, and human resources industries and has experience within governmental
organizations. Jennings has published numerous industry columns/articles for EIM Institute, Information
Management and Intelligent Enterprise magazines and others, and has been a judge for numerous awards. He
speaks frequently on enterprise information management issues and practices at major industry conferences, and
has been an instructor of information technology at the University of Chicago's Graham School. Jennings is a coauthor of the book "Universal Meta Data Models" (2004) and a contributing author to the books "Building and
Managing the Meta Data Repository" (2000) and "The DAMA Guide to the Data Management Body of Knowledge"
(DAMA-DMBOK, 2009).
Clay Rehm, CCP, PMP, is president of Rehm Technology (www.rehmtech.com), a consulting firm specializing in
data integration solutions. Rehm provides hands-on expertise in project management, assessments,
methodologies, data modeling, database design, metadata and systems analysis, design and development. He has
worked in multiple platforms and his experience spans operational and data warehouse environments. Rehm is a
technical book editor and is a co-author of the book, Impossible Data Warehouse Situations with Solutions
from the Experts. In addition, he is a Certified Computing Professional (CCP), a certified Project Management
Professional (PMP), holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Computer Science and a Masters Degree in Software
Engineering from Carroll College. He can be reached at clay.rehm@rehmtech.com.
Nancy Williams is a vice president and principal consultant with DecisionPath Consulting, where she serves as BI
and data warehousing practice leader. She is a regular instructor at TDWI World Conferences and Regional
Seminars and is a panelist for DM Review's Ask the Experts. Williams holds an MBA from the University of Virginia
and has published articles on BI maturity, the business value of BI and organizational change to capture BI ROI.
Her areas of expertise include BI/DW strategy, architecture, technology strategy and tool selection, data modeling,
ETL strategy, business case development and BI-driven change management
© 2014 SourceMedia. All rights reserved.
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