Top 10 Questions to Ask and Mistakes to Avoid When Building a Data Warehouse: Part II

by David Marco

After countless hours of research, reading articles, and attending conferences, you are ready to tackle a data warehousing/business intelligence (BI) project and finally see the 401% return on investment everyone else seems to be getting. You get the funding, only to realize the real work lay ahead of you -- purchasing software, hardware, and middleware. And if that isn't difficult enough, you need to now work with the high-level members of each of your company's divisions in order to get the project moving because an enterprise data warehouse involves integrating data from a corporate perspective. However, before you can even begin, there are 10 essential questions that you need to answer (see sidebar). The previous Executive Update ( Vol. 1, No. 9) addressed the first five; this update will concentrate on the last five.