Failing Fast - the DW way forward

The straight line to a Data Warehouse success have never been longer. The last decade has seen new analytic tools handling unprecedented amounts of data and placing the power of discovery at your fingertips. But the twists and turns of modern frontend tools puts a higher pressure on an agile and stable backend.

But the backend has just not kept up the pace. Still relying on old ETL-tools running high capacity hardware and big IT resources for development, test, deploy, operations and maintenance. The lead time from requirement to delivery increases as advanced analytics keep pushing the envelope of available data. And if deliveries do not meet expectations, another iteration means a new month-long loop in development. And at every iteration, the solution will be more complex, stretching the lead times even more.

It’s time to turn that trend by Failing Fast!

The idea of Failing Fast is to always work with small changes, deployed to end users quickly. Catch possible problems or misunderstandings early in the process. Fetch immediate business feedback and support for corrections, new needs or identifying dead-ends. Only propagate successful changes and structures into Production. Keeping tight control over your current solution.

The backend development needs to switch focus from being a code creating function into becoming a part of the analysis, where new concepts are quickly evaluated in symbiosis with frontend. And as the backend closes the gap to frontend, the old basic backend chores of coding and documentation can be automated, saving time and resources.

Highly specialized DW Automation tools, like WhereScape, will automate code generation, documentation and deployment. It helps keep track of your solution from source to target – and from target to source. And it will integrate on almost any database platform; on premise or cloud based.

If you are curious of the possibilities of DataWarehouse Automation, pay us a visit! Knowit holds TestDrives in Stockholm at least twice a year and offers TestDrive setups and POCs on premise.

Read about our next event here: Data Warehouse Automation Test Drive