The Generic BI Architecture

The chart below shows more or less an architecture of Busines Intelligence delivery right from the data generations Stage to the Report Generation & decision Support. The flowchart is divided into 3 phases, Phase1,Phase2,Phase3. I shall discuss Each of them very briefly (Click on the pictures for better viewing of the text in the diagram)



• The phase 1 of the diagram involves collecting the Transaction data from various operational data sources (ODS) that are deemed essential for records storage by the business.

• The data from all these various sources is extracted to one region for further manipulation. This is a very complex region where the data is brought on platform from various sources.

• Here the data may be extracted real time, hourly basis, daily, weekly monthly etc depending on the business need & other constraints.

• The phase 2 starts when all the data that is in the single platform is then made into a single format & made relevant in terms of removing all the inconsistency that may be prevailing.

• Again even this complex process is extremely important & is termed as data integration.

• Once the data is made consistent it is further normalized as per certain rules & standards of data warehousing & as required by the business.

• The data is stored constantly in the Data warehouse & is segregated in to different tables for relevance while storing.

• There are so many other complex processes involved here & in the previous phases, I wouldn’t be going deep into it.

• Once the data storage part is complete then comes the reporting part.

• Cubes are created for faster retrieval from the data warehouse & to view its multidimensionality.

• Data marts are created so that the relevant stakeholders can extract the data or do reporting from the data relevant only to their functional unit.

• Scorecards, Dashboards, & other reporting can be done directly from data warehouse or from data marts or from cubes as may be the need.

• The reporting part also involves a certain amount of analytics but most of this is very limited. Unless the end user is very well versed with the OLAP tool, data, analytics a very good outcome for supporting ad-hoc & complex business decisions become very difficult & most of the BI projects are not able to deliver this. This not only due to the tool but also due to several other factors. Thus versatility needed for the analytics team gets hampered & thereby the BI project outcome. All the million dollars go in a ditch.

The bewildered state of a Business Analyst!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time again I have tried to emphasize what a business analyst is & should be doing. In my previous topic “Critical Skills a Business Analyst must have” I have given a framework on what is expected of BA based on the Gartner theory & industry expectations. It’s sad to see most of the generation getting swayed by terms & jargons & trying finding what they want in the wrong place & at last ending up smelling socks. Well the industry in the mother of all the confusions!! For those of you who still feel that Business Analyst is obscure, I think this should help.

• Systems analysts who generally analyze the requirements & thereby find the system needs to fulfill such requirements. Act as business/system liaison between business and application developers.

•Requirements analysts - who generally do the requirements elicitation & understand what people say and to detect what they might be hesitant to say blah blah blah

• Business system analysts these are generally the victims formed by those companies who believe in MPD (Multiple personality disorder) & cost cutting. They want you to do both the work of requirement & system analyst & a little of other things also until you go completely mad & run out of the company heels over head. Oh well did you think the fancy title is good? Try your luck.

• I love this role for all its challenges involved in practicing & living the unbridled forces that influence business. Simply put Business analysts are responsible for understanding the business and making recommendations for sustainability, risk mitigations, Business improvement & profits blah blah blah

For those of you who need a strong dosage of analytics I’d recommend be sure you understand what continuous & discrete data is, before you click on www.businessanalytics.in
For those of you who think have strong appetite for Greek & Latin with all the animation in between, if you would like to work in a warehouse & have the nerve to load & unload bulks of data & for more gyaan on this log on to http://www.keysoft.co.in/

Disclaimer - Both the institutes train in different domains, please exercise diligence before enrolling yourself into these & first decide which one you fit in.

Butterfly Says Happy Diwali To you !!!!!!

”One day, a small opening appeared on a cocoon; a man sat and watched for the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then, it seems to stop making any progress.It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could not go any further.So the man decided to help the butterfly: he took a pair of scissors and opened the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily.But it had a withered body, it was tiny and shrivelled wings.The man continued to watch because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would open, enlarge and expand, to be able to support the butterfly’s body, and become firm. Neither happened!In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a withered body and shrivelled wings. It never was able to fly. What the man, in his kindness and his goodwill did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening, were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings, so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes, struggles are exactly what we need in our life.If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been. Never been able to fly.

I asked for Strength...
And God gave me difficulties to make me strong.

I asked for Wisdom...
And God gave me Problems to solve.

I asked for prosperity...
And God gave me a Brain and Brawn to work.
I asked for Courage…..
And God gave me obstacles to overcome.

I asked for Love...
And God gave me Troubled people to help.
I asked for Favors...
And God gave me Opportunities.

“I received nothing I wanted...
But I received everything I needed."
Live life without fear, confront all obstacles and evince that you can overcome them.
“I hope this little message on this Diwali Season would bring in the understanding that why we come across difficult situations in our life before we reach our ultimate destination............”I wish u a very HAPPY DIWALI to you and to your family members !!
May god bless this country, with peace & prosperity – Data Smith

(Courtesy – UIS HR)