EDUCATION: Classes   >   Course Details

    • Goal:  Expose & instill competence with the methods and tools required to build
    a VDDW and capture value from it.

  • Methods: Instructor lecture is kept to an absolute minimum, since we believe this is simply too much material to absorb without hands-on practice.  Hands-on exercises, guided Q&A and discussions, and unstructured problem solving that build upon lessons learned are the favored methods.  Students work together in small groups for many exercises and instructor roams to provide as much small group and individual assistance as possible. 

  • Prerequisite Knowledge: Background experience in at least some of the core objectives / content areas of the course is expected.  Candidates don’t need to be an ABC expert, Finance guru, DBA, or MBA.  However, if you rarely touch a spreadsheet or database, and don’t typically dig around with data somehow as part of your job, you will likely find yourself swamped.  The basic prerequisite is experience jockeying around or analyzing enterprise data (via whatever tools are familiar). 

  • Intended Audience: The VDDW Primer is designed for individuals responsible for leading and executing initiatives that convert corporate data assets to hard dollars.  Finance and DW/BI professionals are prime candidates, but other job functions are certainly not excluded.  The basic defining characteristic of an enrollee is familiarity jockeying around or analyzing enterprise data (via whatever tools are familiar). 

  • Objectives:

  • Area

    Objectives
     

    ABC Mechanics

     

    • Map GL Accounts to the Resources they pay for and the Activities they support

    • Identify appropriate Expense Drivers

    • Identify appropriate Transaction allocation units

    • Identify appropriate Transaction allocation drivers

    • Build Allocation rules

    • Identify & Map expense targets

    • Execute allocation processes
     

    Data Staging

     

    • Perform data discovery

    • Identify & Map data sources to targets

    • Conform operational data to the form required for dimensional framework and ABC allocation

    • Write and Execute basic SQL

    • Identify and mitigate common data landmines

     

    OLAP / Dimensional Design

     

    • Identify and Build Dimensions

    • Identify and Define Measures

    • Define Measure granularity

    • Identify and Handle semi-additive and non-additive measures

    • Build Cubes / Measure Groups

    • Build Virtual / Hyper Cube

    • Build Calculation Dimensions

    • Create cube calculations for important ratios and cross-cube, cross-dimensional drill-across / traceback

    • Construct and execute basic MDX queries
     

    System Analysis Fundamentals

     

    • Define interviewing strategy and approach

    • Identify and sequence interviewees

    • Identify and Mitigate possible interview issues

    • Generate, Evaluate, and Sequence interview questions

    • Evaluate and Critique interview tracking and follow-up mechanisms

    • Identify allocation inputs, sources, and stewards

    • Define Validation / Testing Criteria

    • Employ, Interpret, & Assess different analysis tools:

    - GL/Resource Matrices

    - Resource/Activity Matrices

    - Activity/Driver Matrices

    - Process Flow / Process Mapping

    - Driver/Source Mapping

    - Data Range Analysis

    - Data Tie-Back

    - Dimension Bus Matrix

    - Cube/Measure Matrix
     

    Validation, Visualization, & Value Discovery (V3)

     

    • Validate ABC model integrity:  Financial, Structural, & Results Integrity

    • Execute analytic OLAP queries to elucidate NOP / Performance, Driver-Performance Correlations & Ratios, Resource Utilization and NOP-Resource Leverage

    • Explore findings comparatively, by outliers, and by affinities

    • Pinpoint uncaptured value

    • Correlate findings to pressing business decisions

    • Present findings visually

    • Generate & present business recommendations
  • Schedule:
  • The objectives outlined above are layered in through-out the daily activities, and whereever possible enforced by way of repetitive execution to give students a sense of the rhythm of work required to build the VDDW.

  • Day

    Activities
     

    Monday

     

    • Introductions

    • Simple Introductory ABC Exercise

    • VDDW Case Study Overview

    • GL Processing

    - Stage

    - Load

    - ABC

    - Cube

    - Validate
     

    Tuesday

     

    • Resource Driver Processing

    - Stage

    - Load

    - ABC

    - Cube

    - Validate

    • Master Data Processing

    - Stage

    - Load

    - ABC

    - Cube

    - Validate
     

    Wednesday

     

    • Transaction Data Processing

    - Stage

    - Load

    - ABC

    - Cube

    - Validate
     

    Thursday

     

    • VDDW System Analysis Fundamentals

    • Cube Navigation & Analysis

    • Validation of ABC Integrity

    • Visualization Options

     

    Friday

     

    • Value Discovery

    • Presentation of Findings

    • Course Evaluations