This document addresses business discovery, a process for defining and refining the business drivers for data warehousing. The purpose of business discovery is to identify critical business objectives, determine the information to support these business objectives, and recommend approaches to provide solutions. Business discovery determines which business objectives are high-impact organizational opportunities and establishes implementation priorities.
Data warehousing is a complex, skill intensive, time consuming, and expensive process.
It is generally financially riskier than other technology initiatives. Data warehousing projects will fail if the requirements are not well understood and defined at the beginning. However, standard requirements gathering techniques that are function-based and focused on a specific business objective are not sufficient for data warehousing. Data warehouse development requires business discovery, a process for defining and refining the business drivers for data warehousing. The purpose of business discovery is to identify critical business objectives, determine the information to support these business objectives, and recommend approaches to provide solutions.