Describe the main principles and key features of Kimball’s Business Dimensional Lifecycle. Support your answer with a diagram showing the stages of the lifecycle.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The Business Dimensional Lifecycle - Principles
o Focus on the business e.g. Identify business requirements and their associated value.
o Build an information infrastructure e.g. build a single, integrated, easy-to-use, high
performance information foundation able to meet the business requirements.
o Deliver in meaningful increments e.g. 6 to 12 month timeframes.
o Deliver the entire solution e.g. provide all the elements necessary to deliver value to the
business user e.g. data warehouse, ad hoc query tools, reporting applications, advanced
analytics, training, support etc
The Business Dimensional Lifecycle – Key Features
1. Business Requirements Definition plays central role by influencing Project Planning and providing the
foundation for the three tracks that follow concerning:
o Technology (top track)
o Data (middle track)
o BI applications (bottom track)
2. Comprehensive project management
3. Incremental and iterative approach

(3)

Answer should be supported with a diagram of lifecycle.