The “bottom up” approach allows tea

The “bottom up” approach allows teams to develop the skills and techniques required for data warehousing in a much lower risk and lower exposure environment than a full scale EDW project. Incremental ADMs are much quicker to develop than EDW systems as well. It is common to develop the first incremental ADM in six to nine months, while it can often take 12 to 18 months to deliver the first phase of an EDW system. This speed to market is especially important when trying to demonstrate the ROI and intrinsic value of data warehousing to an organization.



From the project management standpoint, incremental ADMs greatly assist in keeping the team “on message.” EDW teams tend to attempt to solve tomorrow’s problems today, building generalist “build it and they will come” systems leading to many project delays and slipped deadlines. In contrast, incremental ADMs are built to solve specific problems for the business, a “focused problem” leads to a “focused team.” While cost is rarely the deciding factor, incremental ADMs are less expensive than EDW systems. A scaleable, industrial strength ADM can be constructed for $700,000 to $1200,000 (US$), this compares favorably with EDW system costs of ten million dollars (US$).

The upsides to a “bottom up” approach are:

1. Quick ROI
2. Low risk, low political exposure learning and development environment
3. Lower level, shorter term political will required
4. Fast delivery
5. Focused problem, focused team
6. Inherently incremental

The downsides to a “bottom up” approach are:

1. Likely “curse of success” (overwhelming success overwhelms resources)
2. Multiple team coordination
3. Must have an EDMA to integrate incremental data marts