Using A Model-Driven Approach For BI Projects?
April 27th, 2004 by Mark Rittman
I’ve been working away on client sites over the last few weeks, and because
of this I’ve not really had any spare time for writing articles or answering
questions. Apologies if you’ve sent me a question and you’ve not heard back, and
hopefully I should be able to spend a bit more time on the site over the next
few weeks.
Anyway, in the meantime, here’s some more news. Neil Raden has written a
provocative article for
IntelligentEnterprise.com entitled
"The New Deal" that proposes a model-driven approach to building data
warehousing projects.
According to the article:
"Data warehousing remains stubbornly focused on data and databases
instead of information processes, business models, and closed-loop solutions.
Methodologies and best practices for data warehousing have barely budged. Our
approach to building data warehouses and business intelligence (BI)
environments around them is out of step with the reality of today’s
information technology.""Current methodologies stress the need for iterations: an indication
that participants agree that it’s not possible to specify a data warehouse all
at once. Never, however, is it made clear what’s supposed to happen with the
previous version of the data model.""The alternative is a model-driven architecture. With this approach, the
models are not data models; rather, they are expressive business models
designed not to just arrange data neatly in a drawer but to solve end-to-end
problems. Such models are expressed in terms that are meaningful to
stakeholders in the sales, marketing, finance, procurement, product design,
engineering, actuarial, auditing, and risk management."

April 29th, 2004 at 8:38 am
Also worth a read is another article by the same author “Stepping up BI expectations” (http://www .intelligententerprise .com/print_article_flat .jhtml?article=/030901 /614feat1_1.jhtml). It makes me wonder how he would view Oracle’s BI product set. I imagine in some ways progressive; enterprise scalable solution, and in some ways not; separate metadata for different reporting tools (Discoverer EUL and OLAP catalog).
June 7th, 2004 at 12:48 am
Why don’t you ask me?
I’m not up-to-speed on the very latest offerings from Oracle. I saw Neil Mendelsohn at the Gartner BI conference in Chicago a few weeks ago, and I’m hoping he can help me get more current. If you can help impart a little sense of urgency with the Redwood Shores people, maybe we can get this rolling.
Oracle is nicely positioned to move on the model-driven idea, but I have no idea if they have the desire to.
-NR