CHAPTER 4 Defining Business Requirements

In the phase of defining requirements, you need to concentrate on what information the users need, not so
much on how you are going to provide the required information. Requirements determination for the data
marts is the outcome of either the practical approach or the derived products of the purely top-down
approach.

DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS

In several ways, building a data warehouse is very different from building an operational system. This
becomes notable especially in the requirements gathering phase.

In providing information about the requirements for an operational system, the users are able to give you
precise details of the required functions, information content, and usage patterns. In striking contrast, for a
data warehousing system, the users are generally unable to define their requirements clearly. They cannot
define precisely what information they really want from the data warehouse, nor can they express how they
would like to use the information or process it.

Dimensional Nature of Business Data

Even though the users cannot fully describe what they want in a data warehouse, they can provide you
with very important insights into how they think about the business. The concept of business dimensions is
fundamental to the requirements definition for a data warehouse.

Fig. 4.1: Examples of business dimensions

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INFORMATION PACKAGES—A USEFUL CONCEPT

The concept of information packages helps give a concrete form to the various insights, nebulous thoughts,
and opinions expressed during the process of collecting requirements. The information packages, put
together while collecting requirements, are very useful for taking the development of the data warehouse
to the next phases. Your primary goal in the requirements definition phase is to compile information
packages for all the subjects for the data warehouse.

Fig. 4.2: An information package

Business dimensions form the underlying basis of the new methodology for requirements definition. The
dimension hierarchies are the paths for drilling down or rolling up in our analysis. Within each major business
dimension there are data elements that can also be useful for analysis. This data element does not
necessarily indicate hierarchical levels in these dimensions. Such data elements within the business
dimension may be called categories.

By using these business dimensions, the numbers the users analyze are the measurements or metrics that
measure the success of their departments. These are the facts that indicate to the users how their
departments are doing in fulfilling their departmental objectives.

Fig. 4.3: A complete information package

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REQUIREMENTS GATHERING METHODS

Broadly, we can classify the users of the data warehouse as follows:

 Senior executives will give you a sense of direction and scope for your data warehouse. They are the
ones closely involved in the focused area.
 The key departmental managers are the ones who report to the executives in the area of focus.
 Business analysts are the ones who prepare reports and analyses for the executives and managers.
 The operational system database administrators and IT applications staff will give you information
about the data sources for the warehouse.

Here is a broad list of requirements needed to be gathered:

 Data elements: fact classes, dimensions

 Recording of data in terms of time
 Data extracts from source systems
 Business rules: attributes, ranges, domains, operational records

Types of Questions
It is very important to understand the types of questions that may be used and the effectiveness of each:

 Open-Ended Questions
These open up options for interviewees to respond.

The benefits of using open-ended questions are:

 they put interviewees at ease
 allow insights into values and beliefs
 provides exposure to interviewees’ vocabulary
 opens up opportunities for more questioning, and
 are interesting and spontaneous.

Drawbacks are:
 they could result in too much unnecessary detail,
 the risk of losing control in the interview,
 they may take too much time,
 not proportional to the information gathered.

 Closed Questions
These allow limited responses to interviewees. Some closed questions are bipolar in the sense that
these look for “Yes or No” type answers

The benefits are:

 Closed questions enable you to save time and get to the point quickly and easily.
 Closed questions allow for interviews to be compared,
 provide control over the interview and the ability to cover a lot of ground quickly, and
 are likely to gather only the relevant information.

Drawbacks are:
 the inability to get rich details,
 less chance for building trust and rapport between interviewer and interviewee, and
 they may become boring and dull.

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  Probes
These are really follow-up questions. Probes may be used after open-ended or closed questions. The
intention would be to go beyond the initial questions and answers. Probes are useful in drawing out
an interviewee’s point of view.

Arrangement of Questions
For information gathering using the proper types of questions alone is not enough. The following structures
for arranging questions are used in practice:

 Pyramid Structure
This is an inductive method of arranging the questions. You begin with very specific closed questions
and then expand the topics with open-ended questions.

 Funnel Structure
This is a deductive method. Begin with general open-ended questions and then narrow the topics
with specific, closed questions.

 Diamond-Shaped Structure
In this case, you warm up the interview with specific closed questions. You then proceed towards
broad, general, open-ended questions. Finally, you narrow the interview and achieve closure with
specific closed questions.

Adapting the JAD Methodology

As the name implies, Joint application development (JAD) is a joint process, with all the concerned groups
getting together for a well-defined purpose. The success of a project using the JAD approach very much
depends on the composition of the JAD team. The typical composition, however, must have pertinent roles
present in the team:

 Executive sponsor—Person controlling the funding, providing the direction, and empowering the
team members
 Facilitator—Person guiding the team throughout the JAD process
 Scribe—Person designated to record all decisions
 Full-time participants—Everyone involved in making decisions about the data warehouse
 On-call participants—Persons affected by the project, but only in specific areas
 Observers—Persons who would like to sit in on specific sessions without participating in the decision
making

Using Questionnaires
Important points relating to significant aspects of administering questionnaires:

 Type and Choice of Questions

You may use both open-ended and closed questions in a questionnaire. Choice of language is
important. Use the language of the respondents, not cryptic technical jargon. Be specific, not
vague. Keep questions short and precise. Avoid objectionable, politically incorrect language. Avoid
talking down to the respondents. Target the questions to the appropriate respondent group.

 Application of Scales
Questionnaires usually contain nominal and interval scales. These make it easy to respond. Nominal
scales are used to classify things. Interval scales are used for quantitative analysis.

 Questionnaire Design
The order of the questions is important. Start the questionnaire with less controversial, highly important
questions. Cluster questions with similar content. The design must be inviting and pleasing. Allow
ample white space. Provide sufficient space for responses. Make it easy to mark or indicate
responses while using scales. Maintain a consistent style.

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  Administering Questionnaires
Carefully decide on who gets the questionnaire. Ensure that there are no omissions. Some ways of
administering the questionnaires include at an initial group session, through personal delivery and
later collection, self-administration by respondents, by mail to respondent locations, and
electronically via e-mail.

Review of Existing Documentation

Although most of the requirements gathering will be done through interviews, group sessions, and
questionnaires, you will be able to gather useful information from the review of existing documentation.

 Documentation from User Departments

The business units usually have documentation on the processes and procedures in those units.
Review in detail all the processes and procedures.

 Documentation from IT
The IT professionals will give you the business rules and help you to understand and appreciate the
various data elements from the source systems. Review the programs and modules that make up
the source systems. Look at the copybooks inside the programs to understand how the data
structures are used in the programs.

REQUIREMENTS DEFINITION: SCOPE AND CONTENT

There are several reasons why you should commit the results of your requirements definition phase to writing.
First of all, the requirements definition document is the basis for the next phases. types of information this
document must contain:

Data Sources
This piece of information is essential in the requirements definition document. Include all the details you
have gathered about the source systems.

Typically, the requirements definition document should include the following information:

 Available data sources

 Data structures within the data sources
 Location of the data sources
 Operating systems, networks, protocols, and client architectures
 Data extraction procedures
 Availability of historical data

Data Transformation
In your requirements definition document, include details of data transformation. This will necessarily involve
the mapping of source data to the data in the data warehouse. Indicate where the data about your
metrics and business dimensions will come from. Describe the merging, conversion, and splitting that need
to take place before moving the data into the data warehouse.

Data Storage
When you find out about the types of analyses the users will usually do, you can determine the types of
aggregations that must be kept in the data warehouse. Your requirements definition document must
include sufficient details about storage requirements. Prepare preliminary estimates on the amount of
storage needed for detailed and summary data. Estimate how much historical and archived data needs
to be in the data warehouse.

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Information Delivery
Your requirements definition document must contain the following requirements on information delivery to
the users:

 Drill-down analysis
 Roll-up analysis
 Drill-through analysis
 Slicing and dicing analysis
 Ad hoc reports
 Online monitoring tools such as dashboards and scorecards

Information Package Diagrams

The information package diagrams crystallize the information requirements for the data warehouse. They
contain the critical metrics measuring the performance of the business units, the business dimensions along
which the metrics are analyzed, and the details of how drill-down and roll-up analyses are done.

Requirements Definition Document Outline

 Introduction
State the purpose and scope of the project. Include broad project justification. Provide an executive
summary of each subsequent section.

 General Requirements Descriptions

Describe the source systems reviewed. Include interview summaries. Broadly state what types of
information requirements are needed in the data warehouse.

 Specific Requirements
Include details of source data needed. List the data transformation and storage requirements.
Describe the types of information delivery methods needed by the users.

 Information Packages
Provide as much detail as possible for each information package. Include this in the form of package
diagrams.

 Other Requirements
Cover miscellaneous requirements such as data extract frequencies, data loading methods, and
locations to which information must be delivered.

 User Expectations
State the expectations in terms of problems and opportunities. Indicate how the users expect to use
the data warehouse.

 User Participation and Sign-Off

List the tasks and activities in which the users are expected to participate throughout the
development life cycle.

 General Implementation Plan

At this stage, give a high-level plan for implementation.

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