Tool Selection

The purpose of this stage is to identify the candidate tools for developing and implementing the Data Warehouse data and application architectures and for performing technical and support architecture functions where appropriate. Select the candidate tools that best meet the business and technical requirements as defined by the Data Warehouse architecture, and recommend the selections to the customer organization. Procure the tools upon approval from the organization.

It is important to note that the process of selecting tools is often dependent on the existing technical infrastructure of the organization. Many organizations feel strongly for various reasons about using tools for the Data Warehouse applications that they already have in their "arsenal" and are reluctant to purchase new application packages. It is recommended that a thorough evaluation of existing tools and the feasibility of their reuse be done in the context of all tool evaluation activities. In some cases, existing tools can be form-fitted to the Data Warehouse; in other cases, the customer organization may need to be convinced that new tools would better serve their needs.

It may even be feasible that this series of activities is skipped altogether, if the organization is insistent that particular tools be used (no room for negotiation), or if tools have already been assessed and selected in anticipation of the Data Warehouse project.

Tools may be categorized according to the following data, technical, application, or support functions:

- Source Data Extraction and Transformation

- Data Cleansing

- Data Load

- Data Refresh

- Data Access

- Security Enforcement

- Version Control/Configuration Management

- Backup and Recovery

- Disaster Recovery

- Performance Monitoring

- Database Management

- Platform

- Data Modeling

- Metadata Management