Period: 2014–2015
Project Type: Data Warehouse IT Project
Customer: International NGO
Description:
The client organization was collecting many disparate statistical data types from its subsidiaries all over the world. The data was stored internally in many disconnected or poorly integrated databases, some of which were outdated, dating back to the 1980s. Reporting and data analysis had proven to be problematic and tedious, often involving manual data exporting, importing, and aggregation. The main goal of the project was to create a centralized data model and to consolidate the statistical data in one place to enable Business Intelligence, reporting, and data analysis. In addition, the organization was planning to retire as many smaller databases as possible to cut the cost of licensing and maintenance. One of the major challenges was that some of the smaller databases were associated with several production applications, so the project team had to have a solid plan for any migration and changes in the production environments.
My role:
I was asked to join the project some time after it was already underway to provide leadership, implement appropriate project management processes, and support the design, planning, and iterative implementation phases. The key was to ensure good communication and planning with several critical business departments and IT.
Tasks accomplished:
Researched the current state of the project deliverables and requirements
Conducted stakeholder analysis, identifying a number of critical stakeholders that had not initially been communicated or consulted with. Achieved the buy-in and secured their support.
Established periodic project status updates communicated to key stakeholders
Facilitated development and discussion of the data warehouse model
Obtained conceptual approval of the data structure
Facilitated issue resolution and design amendments based on incoming new information
Implemented project risk management process, including fallback planning for the go-live
Planned the production release, including the cut-over, facilitated a smooth transition of several production systems
Successfully conducted the go-live with no issues or impact to the business users
Facilitated the project close-out
Budget: ~$250,000
Project Team: 4-6
Data Modeler
Project Manager
Solutions Architect
Business SME
Additional Business SMEs (As-needed basis)
Duration: 10 Months
Outcome:
Under my guidance the team managed to successfully create and get approval for a centralized data model, implement the transition, and update the production applications. The Data Warehouse was ready to be used as a single source of truth for another project, which would establish data visualization dashboards through the implemented a Business Intelligence tool ultimately aimed to support business-critical decision-making.
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