Building an Effective Data Warehouse
This case study provides insight into how a data warehouse was built for a firm in the financial sector using its existing Microsoft technology. It touches on the current form of "static reports" currently used within the company, which we have identified as problematic. This case study showcases a step-by-step method of how this DW is built. After reading, you should understand the theory and practical application of the DW approach. How would you apply a similar framework to a large department store chain's supply chain?
4. Approach
4.2. Functional Requirements
This project is organized in seven stages: Functional and Non-Functional Requirements definition, System Architecture definition, Multidimensional Model definition, Integration Services Phase execution, Analysis Services Phase execution, excel spreadsheet elaboration to explore information and, finally, a test phase.
The functional requirements specify what the system should do to meet the user's needs. This project intends to enable the consultation of real account balances (based on the bank account statements), but also the consultation of account balances that include estimated account movements (known as working balances). These balances can be aggregated by owner account, by bank, by currency, by company country and bank country. Additionally, the system should allow the setting of temporal criteria, which means, to specify the day, or a time scope, which can be weeks, months, quarters, semesters or years. It should be possible to aggregate the balances by sum or average.