The Data Warehouse Journey www Instant BI com

The Data Warehouse Journey www. Instant. BI. com 1/1/2012

The Data Warehouse Journey ® So, you are going to build a data warehouse? ® In the next few slides I hope to share with you some of the more ‘entertaining’ aspects of a typical data warehousing project ® I have reduced the size of the photos to keep the presentation as small as possible ® I hope you enjoy the show!!

® You start your project in hope, seeking glory

® You want to build something that will be ®Impressive ®Immediately recognisable ®Enduring ®A testament to your skill

® You plan that it will be ®Elegant ®Sophisticated ®A beacon for all to see ®A place of learning for your successors

® You plan to ® Pay attention to details ® Get everything right ® Make your mark in the data warehouse world

® You will build the ultimate in drill down!!

® You will give the people what they say they want… ® You will lead them to freedom from the tyranny of lack of information!!

® You will be remembered long after your time ® With success in this project, your career will blast off

® You have invested in the latest technology

® You got a great deal on a (slightly used) dw methodology ® They say you pay for methodologies by the pound and this one is really heavy! It should be great!! ® It even has a map on how to avoid the dragons of a DW project!!

® You set out on your great adventure ® The sun is shining, the gods are smiling, all is good with the world…

® Some small clouds appear ® But it’s nothing you can’t handle

® The surrounding business environment turns stormy ® You signal for help

® The road ahead looks distinctly chilly ® But you will hang with it

® The obstacles seem insurmountable…

® Everything is an uphill battle…

® The chill wind of ‘lack of funds’ blows over your glorious project…

® …and then…it gets worse… ® You feel your boat and crew are headed for disaster ® You try desperately to avoid a watery grave…

® Success…or so it seems… ® You have averted this disaster but you have to turn back and do some rework ® The schedule moves out

® Your boss…who you thought was a supporter, suddenly seems different, somehow changed…

® Your users demand a meeting to discuss progress ® They want the data warehouse now ® They don’t understand the issues ® They are acting like babies

® You feel constrained by new budget restrictions

® Your team are bending over backwards to get the job done ® You are inspired by their level of flexibility and co-operation

® There is one member of the team who is prone to tantrums ® You tell him to grow up and be a professional ® But…

® …the other members of the team take matters into their own hands ® You are forgiven for not understanding this one. It is a bit obtuse. The photograph is of the site of the Boston Massacre.

® You feel attacked from all sides… ® You have never experienced anything like it before…

® Finally, it seems a long time has passed, but you are climbing out of the endless ‘valley of torment and trauma’… ® The clouds start to clear ® The sun comes out ® The rainbow signals the coming of better times

® Finally, you have delivered. . . ® You review the initial plans ® You think about the past few months ® You know ® It’s not quite what was asked for ® It’s not quite what was promised ® But with all the traumas forced on you from outside the project ® And the tensions inside the project team ® You are proud to have delivered something that is kind of like what the users asked for….

The Data Warehouse Journey ® Welcome back. We hope you enjoyed the show!! ® “But what is the point of the show? ” ® The point of the show is we’d like to help you avoid some of the ‘traumas’ of the DW project in the story ® BI 4 ALL and Se. ETL will save you a great deal of time, money and trauma ² They provide support for all aspects of building a star schema data warehouse. ® Please take the time to read through our sales presentation on our web site

Summary ® Data Warehouse Projects can be difficult projects, more so than most ® The changing business environment will put pressures on you and your project ® Books and classes will help…. but… ® Having a Data Model and the worlds most cost effective ETL tools will help ® Combine that with world class experience and you chances of success are far better ® Whatever you choose to do, we wish you all the best on your data warehouse project

Thank You for Your Time!

Explanation of the Photographs ® I know that people will ask me. So what are all these photographs and where did they come ® ® ® ® ® from? So here is the answer. Yes, they were all taken by me as I have travelled around. The photos you see are, in order of appearance in the presentation. Massachusetts State House. A stunning building in Boston next to the park. It was designed by Charles Bulfinch when he was just 24 years old. It was being renovated while I was there. Canadian National Tower in Toronto. You can actually stand on a clear perspex floor at the top of the tower and look down. Drive your senses crazy. Big Tom Tower at Christ Church (College) at Oxford University England. In typical Oxford fashion the bell is run at 9: 05 pm every evening, Oxford being 5 minutes behind GMT. It was at this college that Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carol) wrote the immortal ‘Alice in Wonderland’. You can go to ‘Alices Shop’ across from the main entrance of Christ Church as Alice Liddell must have in those days. The drill down is the view of the lake in the middle of Bergen (Norway) as viewed from Floyen which is one of the seven hills around Bergen. A great view! A marker for the start of the ‘Freedom Trail’ in Boston A bust of Alfred Nobel outside the Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway. A thatched roof house in Illfy near Oxford in England. This is about 50 yards from one of the best preserved medieval churches in England, St Marys at Illfy. They have a board in the church for the ‘incumbents’ with the first ‘incumbent’ dated 1170. Just 100 years after the Normal conquest of England. The ‘methodology’ is actually a rune stone from around 900 -1000 AD that is now in Skansen Park in Stockholm Sweden. Skansen is the #1 attraction in Stockholm for my money. As the slogan says, if you only have 1 day in Stockholm, it must be spent at Skansen. It is a magnificent outdoor museum full of collections of houses and wares from across Sweden stretching back over 1000 years.

Explanation of the Photographs ® The next set of photographs are the briefest of brief glimpses of Sognorfjorden. The largest ® ® ® ® fjord in Norway. This is part of a tour called ‘Norway in a Nutshell’ which I firmly believe all people in the would should have the privilege to experience. Alas, this will not be. But if you can do this tour I suggest you sell that second car and do the tour. It is a breathtaking experience. In places the mountains rise straight up out of the fjord up to a height of 1, 800 meters, with the snow line at about 1000 meters at the time these photos were taken. They simply cannot convey the size of what you are seeing. Some of the mountains in the photos are 5, 000 feet high!! The photographs with the boat are, of course, Niagara falls, seen from the tower overlooking the falls on the Canadian side. The strange looking statue is a modern art rendition of Henrik Ibsen that stands at the front of the ‘National Opera House’ in Bergen, Norway. The next 4 slides of granite sculptures and bronze sculptures are from a place called Frognerpark in Oslo in Norway. The park contains the life's work of Gustav Vigeland. He took 40 years to create all the sculptures in the park, and there are hundreds of them. It is one of the most amazing man made things you will ever see. His monolith is a single piece of granite, 55 feet high with 121 figures carved into it. How this was done I have no idea. The small statue of ‘The Angry Boy’ is one of the most famous works of any artist in Norway. As noted on the slide…the site of the Boston massacre. The T-Rex is at a ‘Dinosaur Mini-Golf’ course (if you can believe that) at Niagara Falls. Having seen ‘Dinosaur Mini-Golf’ I’m prepared to believe a lot of things!! The valley is part of the Norway in a Nutshell tour. After leaving the boat you take a bus out of the fjord and this is the view back down into the fjord. It is a great view!! Lastly, the ‘compromise’ data warehouse is actually a wooden church bell tower from around the 1700 s which is now located at Skansen park in Stockholm Sweden. It was actually high tech in it’s time, but suffers in comparison with the Canadian National Tower!!