You and customer on the same table

The first critical step on IFW BDW implementation project is taking user requirements. This is the moment of the truth: customer is on the opposite of you, spent a lot of money for BDW licenses, aware that need to spend even more for consulting services and consequently - he have expectations, with the big E.

On the other side of the table are you, and your IFW BDW model. By the book and according to my experience as well, more the 80% of customer requirements can be fully covered by the model. That is a huge percentage that can give you a confidence to be relatively relaxed during this tough project phase.

What is scoping?

Scoping is the process of mapping formalized customer requirements on the structures of BDW model. The result of scoping is a part (one or more views) of the model which matching this requirements in terms of data model. So, final result of scoping is a logical (and preliminary physical) model of the data warehouse and data marts. Furthermore, it would be useful to use this phase to set customer expectations in terms of output (functionalities that they will get when project would be finished). Set customer expectations means to achieve formal customer satisfaction with proposed functionalities of the solution in early phases of the project (on that way you will avoid “nice wishes” that could appear in later phases of the project).

Gathering requirements - Pragmatic approach

Gathering customer requirements is crucial for project success. On one side, you have customer expectations and “nice wishes”, on the other side you have contract with more or less specified functionalities and budget limitation for project completion. Your mission is to achieve high level of customer satisfaction and fulfill contractual obligations within defined project budget. IFW BDW model can help you a lot, but that is not sufficient.

Interviews with customers & questionnaires

Live meetings with a customer are definitely the best way of taking and understanding their requirements. However, it is important to consider following aspects:

• In general, regarding the scope, you should plan 2-3 general meetings with the whole customer team (one as kick off, second for general clarification and third for scope confirmation and conclusion). Besides that, there should be a need for operational meetings with peers in the customer’s team.
• You must motivate the both type of users (Business and IT) to take active participation in the project, especially in this phase
• Each meeting should be carefully planned - people on the customer side have their daily activities and responsibilities, and from their point of view, you project is an additional time consuming, usually “bothering”, activity that interrupt their focus from daily activities
• Different type of questionnaires (business domain specific, technical environment) cold be a great help (by my experience) as formal and structured way of getting answers from the customer – especially in combination with live interviews. Result should be commented and confirmed on the operational meetings.
• Formal way of communication is crucial to avoid any kind of misunderstandings. Each meeting must result with detailed meeting minutes. Email correspondences have to be managed according to the rules defined in project organization document.
• Some team building activities (launch, drink a beerJ) (vendor and customer team together) are recommendable in order  to establish a good working environment

Mapping requirements on IFW BDW model – the scoping

There are several methods to do scoping (mapping requirements to BDW model):

• Mapping requirements on business solution templates (A/B level)– means selection of business solution templates or its parts (measures and dimensions) and appropriate foreign associations on C’ level into the view(s)  who can match customer requirements
• Mapping requirements on Financial Services Data Model - FSDM (B level) – means selection of FSDM classifications and appropriate foreign associations on C’ level into the view(s)  who can match customer requirements
• Direct mapping on C’ level (Logical model of DW) – means selection of entities and attributes on the logical level of data warehouse data model who can match customer requirements

In practice, the best way of do the scoping is combination of all these methods.

Data interfaces for data exchange between the data warehouse and non-reporting applications will be completed by mapping requirements to application solution templates (AST).

Final result of scoping phase will be generic logical data model of the data warehouse (with data marts).

Formalization of the scope

Fully understanding of customer requirements is crucial for the project. However this understanding must be formalized in one document (usually named “Project scope”). This document must be defined on the detail level deep enough to avoid misinterpretation between you as a vendor and customer. Further mode, beside business definitions as crucial aspect of the scope it is important to specify technical aspects such as reports definitions and functionalities in order to set customer expectations. Project scope document should be confirmed and signed from the customer side on the final meeting with the presence of all participants. You should be aware that any kind of conflict in terms of business scope or application functionality in later stage of the project should be arbitrated by using project scope document as a major resource. So, be careful, be detailed, and be precise.

Summary

• Scoping is one of the key phases in BDW implementation – describes how vendor understand customer requirements and consequently how data model should be defined in order to be able to match customer requirements
• Pragmatic approach (interviews, questionnaires) and synergy between vendor’s and customers teams are crucial for success. Planning of sessions is important - you should respect customer’s time and resources.
• IBM IFW BDW model is great and primary resource in this phase of the project, saves approximately 80% of analysis time
• The best result you can achieve by combining  all methods of scoping (BST, FSDM, C’, AST)
• Formalization is required in all stages during scoping phase, especially in the final document
• Scoping phase will result with generic logical data model together with the set of customer expectations