Case Report for Data Warehousing Failures

As we review the four cases of Auto Guys, Government Research Laboratory,

Complicated Systems, and North American Federal Government have failed to reach the full
scope of the companies and how it failed as a data warehouse. Companies where successful in
their operation towards their data warehouses but failed on their mission focus for their company
and end user, in which the end user failed to recover and learn from their mistakes which lacked
contribution from their company that failed them. Each of the companies failed to provide
appropriate support towards maintenance which was needed to properly need to be taken care of
and users where not involved in the maintenance which would have gone smoothly. The proper
data warehouses did not choose the proper tools to deliver the right software which affected the
transactional data market which is the data warehouse which shows the initial data warehouse
project failed and later abandoned, but later on the project was reassigned, restructured and
refocused to continue to show with some success. The failure of the GRL implementation was a
success but it became a problem to access for end user because of the skills needed for different
programs, it kept changing for user to handle individually, such as COBOL and PowerBuilder
which became a problem for companies they had to rely on skilled users to run certain program
and created less accessibility for other regular users due to their lack of training for the programs.

Even though the data warehouse was effective which it was intended but the design of the
system did not work in the right levels needed for the business and the machine failed to provide
proper data to the users. Projects where completed but the funding ran out to make the necessary
adjustments that can support for the system and did not make the expectation for the users use.
Auto guys group came up with a good plan that they adopted to help their warehouse, but the
company had to risk of not meeting deadlines for projects which will fail scalability and
adaptability that could earn potential earnings for companies’ future.

Generalization that applies across of all these cases have failed across the board. They
were countless ways that they failed, and it showed on the project process. Project were not the
problem it the lack of support by management, no proper guidance for the users which include
schedule, cost of the project, funding, and lack of information of the project is needed for the
users. This has shown that companies can become money hungry and fail to provide the services
is needed for the project and end up closing the company and put employees our of a job.
 Of all the failures that the companies have shown, the most interesting failure that have in
common is how management did not provide properly leadership in such ways by checks and
balance of the project. Management blindly kept dumping large amount money onto projects that
where doomed to fail and left the users to complete all the work while the managers are enjoying
time off without the care in the world for their users. It is unfortunate till this day; they are still
manager lead like this. It like the meaning that I learned, “Do I say not as I do”. Failure are not
always avoidable, but they provide insight on how you fail. First thing before you begin a
project, managers and supervisor need to provide clear guidance to the users on what client
expect out of the project. What kind of budget is needed to get necessary tools, software and
other tools need to be selected that will help accomplish the project on time and within budget
without requesting for more but also need to keep in mind that schedule need to be accurate and
everything given to the user must be applied. There will be break downs trying to complete the
projects but if the users understand the mistake that have been learned from the past, completing
the project on time.

In the end, all these companies faced a harsh reality with there companies. They all failed
because of negligent on their part and trying to be greedy for money, failure to maintain proper
maintenance on their equipment, management failed to provide proper leadership for the end
user to make sure project would be completed on time within budget but instead they left their
user to fend for themselves so they can enjoy their time off. Understanding all this from the
failure of project and leadership will show on what not to do and not repeat the same mistakes
over and over. These lessons will teach managers and new business owners on what not to do
and become better leaders for there employees to achieve a great business longevity.