notes for business intelligence jargon buster

Introducing . . .

Donna Kelly twenty years business intelligence experience . . . • Provided best practices in Data Warehouse Architecture to NHS National Programme in Leeds (NHS

Spine/Secondary Uses Services)• Created greenfield technical architecture for Acute Trust (WWL)• Programme Manager and Enterprise Architect (combined business architect and technical

architect) for greenfield Commissioning Support Service in support of 30 London Primary Care Trusts; brought organisation from empty offices to fully operational business intelligence status.

• Business Intelligence Programme Manager at Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Trust in King’s Lynn; created programme framework including infrastructure, organisation design and staffing, security , and methodology, in a total greenfield setting. Acted as Enterprise Architect, and created Theatre Business Intelligence for the Trust

• Consultant to Greater Manchester West Mental Health Trust, instrumental in moving the Trust to a strategic business intelligence framework. Provided both business and architectural consulting services.

• Interim Head of Quality, Performance and Business Intelligence for Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group, managed relationship with York and Humber Commissioning Support Unit

• Interim Programme Manager for Cardiff University, performed review and reset of the programme, created new programme, provided architecture and methodology and brought home product delivery to the University. Role incorporated Enterprise Architect (combined business architect and technical architect).

http://www.redwing-bi.com http://www.donnapkelly.com [email protected] 0(781) 380-0181

Business Intelligence Jargon Buster

© Redwing Business Intelligence 2002-2015 1

Yes, the net price is a calculated measure.

But that’s a level of detail that’s not required yet.

Note also that a lot of Facts don’t have any numbers. Kimball calls them FactlessFacts, but I think that’s a stupid name. I call them Measureless Facts.

In point of fact though (pun intended) these do have a measure. The fact is, they occurred. That gives them a measure of 1. They occurred one time. There’s a count of 1. Like opening a bank account, for example, or maybe a student attendance at a class. I can add up those 1s, and derive useful business intelligence from them.

(It’s common practice to have a dummy measure with the value 1, just to make adding up the occurrences easier).



The technical term for a cube is a hypercube.

A hypercube with three dimensions is a cube.

A hypercube with four dimensions is a tesseract.

A hypercube with more than four dimensions is . . . a hypercube.

But that’s just too pedantic. We just say cube.

Cubes hold all calculations, actuals, pre-stored aggregations, actions, key performance indicators, and so on. They are the one source of the truth.



The business person needs to know this at a very high level.

The bus matrix (or dimensional model) is the primary planning tool.

Each process has facts. Each fact is fixed in space and time, and is given meaning, BY its dimensions.

For example, I bought a smart black dress in York, on March 15. Purchased by product, by date, by store. Three dimensions give meaning to the fact.

As I add facts, I only add new dimensions. Pre-existing dimensions are already done and available for use.

This means there’s ONE dimensional model, ONE data warehouse, and ONE source of the truth.

Planning tool? Yes? If I intend to add a fact, I should also know the dimensions I intend to add. That gives me a scope for he cork, which is the first step in estimating the effort.



Not mixing terminology is really important.

If one person says ‘measure’ and another says ‘metric’, and they mean the same thing . . . confusion.

If those people both use the same term to refer to different things, then the outcome will not be good.

So – please – don’t use metric and measure interchangeably.



Note the text on the top picture: Select KPIs to Import

KPIs are imported into Dashboard Designer from the cube.

That’s where they are stored and calculated, along with all other calculations.

It’s all part and parcel of making the cube the single source of the truth



A scorecard is not a dashboard



Go to

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/sharepoint-server-help/what-is-the-difference-between-a-dashboard-and-a-scorecard-HA101772797.aspx

to learn more.

Also . . . a dashboard is not a scorecard!



Fort more information,

Please call Donna Kelly on 0(781) 380-0181

Or send email to [email protected]



notes for business intelligence jargon buster

Data & Analytics

business architect

theatre business intelligence

useful business intelligence

programme framework

new programme

nhs national programme

trust consultant

technical term