Assignment #1 (DW)

Muhammad Zain Arshad

16F-8020 (D)
1) What do you mean by dual granularity? Is data warehouse use dual
granularity? Give an example.

Yes DWH uses dual granularity. As if we are storing the data/transaction history of a
particular thing on daily basis and on other hand we are also gathering its data on
weekly/monthly basis. Then at that time we are using dual granularity.
For example:
Storing transactions of sales department of an organization weekly and also average of
their sales that can be helpful in future analyses.
Discussed in class.
2) Write down the drawbacks of the earlier existing decision support systems?

Unawareness about assumptions: If any decision maker somehow forget of some

assumptions that were described by DSS (decision support system) then that type of
failure will cause disastrous in the end.
Design failure: Design define that how a DSS will make the design of something by
keeping in mind that how it is working and what that design will do something or not.
Difficulty in collecting data: As at that time data was gathered mechanically so it
was difficult to gather all relevant data about a thing that may cause us to suspect that
the value provided by DSS is accurate.
Difficulty of quantifying data: DSS mostly rely upon the quant ability of data and
DSS are able to name some of the indefinite numbers but in the end decision
committee take decisions on their own.
From internet (www.stackoverflow.com).
3) Justify that data warehouse is an environment not a product.

DWH is not a product that can be buyed or sailed while it is an environment in which
different algorithms/queries are performed to get formulated results and can reach to a
informational conclusion.
4) Design a simple architecture having data mart and data warehouse. Have you
design data warehouse first or Data-Mart.

There are two architectures one is INMEN, and the other one is Kimball’s in this one
data marts are created first and with the help of them DWH is build. And vice versa.
Discussed in class.
5) What is the reason to deploy Data Warehouse separately from operational
system?

The reason is that operational system stores the current data of DB while DWH stores
the history of data that can be used in future for analysing or for any other purpose. So
that’s why data warehouse is deployed separately from the operational systems.

From internet.

6) List the type of schema use in data warehouse

Two types:
 STAR schema: A star schema is the one in which a central fact table has all
primary keys of demoralized dimensional tables.
 SNOWFLAKE schema: A snow flake schema is an enhancement of star
schema by adding additional dimensions.
Discussed in class.
7) A simple query can fetch the record then why we use data ware house?

We use data ware house so that ad hoc queries can be performed easily while on the
other hand a simple query can fetch data but it is will consume more time and at that
time the system will remain bound if data is to be extracted is stored a long ago as data
ware house is useful in such situations as extraction in it is performed by ad hoc
queries which responds to data stored long ago.
Concept given in class.
8)Write down advantages and disadvantages of top-down and bottom-up
approach.

Top down advantages: Top down disadvantages:

As in this approach data ware house is Takes longer to build even with an
built first which is good for changes. And iterative method
also as a new data mart can be created
easily.
As it provides consistent view of data of High exposure to risk of failure
data marts loaded from the data
warehouse.
Link: (www.folkstalk.com)
Needs high level of cross-functional skills
High outlay without proof of concept

Bottom-up advantages Bottom-up disadvantages

As in this approach data marts are created
first so data marts can be processed or
delivered quickly.
So Reports from these data marts can be
produced quickly.
The positions of data mart and DW are
reversed,
Each data mart has its own narrow view
of data

As new data marts in it can be integrated

with other data marts because of this data
ware house can be extended.
Except one advantage of top down approach all other things are discussed in class.

9) differentiate between granularity and data mart which one important.

Data granularity refers to the level of detail or summarization of the units of data in
the data warehouse.
A single functional area of an organization contains a subset of data stored in a Data
Warehouse.
Data mart is a subject oriented set of related tables which consists of a fact table and
multiple dimension tables. Example: data mart of a sales department.
Data mart is important as if there is an existing data mart then the granularity of
searching that data related to that data mart will be high.
So we can say data mart in the collection of historical data of a certain department of
an organization and granularity is the level of summarization of detailed information.
Described according to the concept in lectures and discussed in class.
10) Without using the concepts of DWH is it possible to analyze data? Explain
how?

As data warehouse contain the history of data in a formatted way that will help us to
analyze in future.
So if we try to get such large amount of data without DWH for analyzing then that
will cost’s us maximum time and money.
Discussed in class.
But today there are some tools with the help of them we can analyze data without a
DWH but again it will costs more.
From internet.
11) For a commercial bank, name five types of strategic objectives.

Five types of a strategic objective:

To offer a wide variety of services to individual and business customers and also
increase the number of such customers. That will help us to generate revenue for our
bank by doing these things:
 Increase interest rate on loans.
 Buy cheap sell dear.(From business book (I.com part 2))
 Decrease interest rate on savings.
 Find ways to reduce the operating costs.
 Recruitment sessions for employee to meet challenging needs.
From internet.
12) Do you agree that a typical retail store collects huge volumes of data through
its operational systems? Name three types of transaction data likely to be
collected by a retail store in large volumes during its daily operations.

Yes they have to store a large amount of data like:

I. Purchases of customers.
 II. Purchases of goods from wholesale dealers or directly from company.
III. And number of employees and their expenses (salary, medication, etc.).
13) Examine the opportunities that can be provided by strategic information for
a medical centre. Can you list five such opportunities?

 Make decision by keeping in mind the strategic review of hospital.

 Collaboration of organization.
 Switching of authorities.
 Prioritize the key initiatives.
 Finding out which department has made progress.
 And to find out where attention is needed.
(https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-key-specialties/10-best-practices-in-
strategic-planning-for-hospital-practices.html)
14) Why were all the past attempts by IT to provide strategic information
failures? List three concrete reasons and explain.

 Failure of Tactics: Ambiguity in understanding the environment as it is

difficult for an IT person to know all complexities they encounter with in their
daily routine work of other fields.
 Failure of Strategy: Poor selection of working group as if we are going to do
work on finance repute of a company if we don’t have a finance expert then
how can this is possible.
 Failure of Vision: To select such a goal that is unrealistic and in such cases the
IT experts do have lack of focus and resources that lead them to failure. This
seems that we set those goals that are impossible to achieve.
(https://www.forbes.com/sites/aileron/2011/11/30/10-reasons-why-strategic-plans-
fail/#704c366c86a8)
15) Describe five differences between operational systems and informational
systems.

Operational Systems Informational Systems

It uses transaction processing.
It is process oriented.
Deals with Current data.
Uses small volumes of data.
It has data regularly update.
Discussed in class.
It uses Analytical processing.
It is subject oriented.
It deals with historical data.
Uses large volumes of data.
Data in it is Non-Volatile.

16) Why are operational systems not suitable for providing strategic
information? Give three specific reasons and explain.

1) Operational System has only Current data which does not provide strategic
information.
2) Operational System use small volumes of data but for strategic information we
need a large amount of data.
3) Operational system does not use historical data. As historical data is used in
analyzing the future amendments.
As discussed in above question 15.
17) Name six characteristics of the computing environment needed to provide
strategic information.

1. User friendly.
2. Interactive.
3. Responsive.
4. Ideal for analysis of data.
5. Fully user driven.
6. Timely.
7. Data Integrity.
18) What types of processing take place in a data warehouse? Describe.

Determine Users' Needs

On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP)
Information & Data Modelling
Data Acquisition & Cleansing
Determine DBMS Server Platform
Determine Hardware Platform
Construct Metadata Repository
Prototyping, Querying & Reporting
Data Mining
From Internet.

19) A data warehouse is an environment not a product.

DWH is not a product that can be buyed or sailed while it is an environment in which
different algorithms/queries are performed to get formulated results and can reach to
an informational conclusion.
20) You are the data analyst on the project team building a data warehouse for
an insurance company. List the possible data sources from which you will bring
the data into your data warehouse. State your assumptions.

 OLTP
 OLAP
 Archived Data: Get historical information.
 External Data: Data is taken from sources outside the organization to find
trends and
Compare against other organizations.
 Internal Data: Organization’s important confidential data.
  Production data: Data is derived from various operational systems.
Discussed in class.
21) For an airlines company, identify three operational applications that would
feed into the data warehouse. What would be the data load and refresh cycles?

1. Account application: need full load, the refresh maybe monthly or quarterly.
User information will have huge amount to data and user information changes
every day, this can fully loaded at the beginning and then update the changes
each month or quarter.
2. Booking application: need full load and the refresh maybe monthly or
quarterly.
3. Flight application: need full load, the refresh maybe quarterly or yearly. Flight
information is relative stable and has limited data. This can be fully loaded to
system. (https://www.coursehero.com)
22) Prepare a table showing all the potential users and information delivery
methods for a data warehouse supporting a large national grocery chain.

Potential Users Information delivery methods

Teenagers 1)Social media
Adult 2)Bill boards
Bulk users (Shop, Organization etc.) 3)online Advertisement (e.g. on tv)
Per Month grocery (Family people)