Page 96 - DCAP208_Management Support Systems

Unit 6: Data Warehousing

6.4.13 Post-Implementation Support Notes

The Post-Implementation Support process addresses the ongoing administration of the
warehouse and provides an opportunity to evaluate and review the implemented solution.
During this process, use of the data warehouse is evaluated by accessing metadata and evaluating
queries and reports run against the warehouse. This information assists with the management
of standard queries or reports, the end-user layer, and the identification of potential indexes.
The process also focuses on several key warehouse administration functions including refreshing
the warehouse, monitoring and responding to system problems, correcting errors, and
conducting performance and tuning activities for the various components of the data warehouse.
This includes change control for information requirements, roll-out of metadata, queries, reports,
filters, and conditions, the library of shared objects, security, incorporation of new users, and the
distribution of data marts and catalogs. During this process, responsibility for the data warehouse
may be transferred to the client organization.

Task Compare and contrast testing and training.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
10. The objective of the ...................... process is to identify, extract, transform, and transport
the various source data necessary for the operation of the data warehouse.

11. The ...................... process centers on producing high quality textual deliverables.
12. The ...................... process is an integrated approach to testing the quality of the various
components of the data warehouse.

13. The ...................... process focuses on the tasks needed to perform the cutover to the
production data warehouse.

6.5 Administration and Security Issues

Data warehouse administrator (DWA) is a person responsible for the administration and
management of a data warehouse.

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Caution Information security is generally a fundamental requirement for a system, and it
should be carefully considered in software engineering at every project development
stage from requirement analysis through implementation to maintenance.
Security is particularly relevant to data warehouse projects, because data warehouses are used to
manage information crucial for strategic decision-making processes. Furthermore,
multidimensional properties and aggregation cause additional security problems similar to
those that generally arise in statistic databases, because they implicitly offer the opportunity to
infer information from data. Finally, the huge amount of information exchange that takes place
in data warehouses in the data-staging phase causes specific problems related to network security.

Appropriate management and auditing control systems are important for data warehouses.
Management control systems can be implemented in front-end tools or can exploit operating

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