Bus matrix is a very important (if not the most important) topic for a Data Warehouse Developer/Architect. And it was great to re-visit and grow knowledge around this topic at Atlanta SQL BI meeting presented by Bill Anton (b|t).
Here are some of my notes:
- Dimensional Modeling is more important than ever specially w/ the rise in self-service BI. it’s important to lay out data in an intuitive way to business users.
- Dimensional Modeling is great! But at the same time it’s important to communicate this to business users. The solution doesn’t involve teaching ER diagrams to users, simplified designs, offloading mapping data to business processes work to business users. So, what’s the solution? That’s where Bus Matrix comes into picture!
- Bus Matrix is a 2 dimensional intersection of Facts & Dimensions.
- Bus matrix can not only help in communication w/ Business users, it can also be useful for IT in project planning and documentation purposes.
- In the requirement gathering phase, a Bus Matrix could be a 2 dimensional intersection of Subject Areas (Sales, Inventory, etc) by Source Systems w/ priorities shown at the intersection. It’s great for road-mapping a BI/DW project.
- Business Matrix is created during requirements gathering stage (subject area vs source systems), before development (Facts vs Dimensions) and needs to be kept updated over time. After the solution is live, it could be one of the important end-user documentation.
Also, Here’s a great resource page posted by the Presenter (includes his slides): http://byobi.com/blog/bus-matrix/ – check it out! it has some great resources in there.
Thank you Bill & Meeting organizers!