Data Warehouse Build Requirements Document
This is a practical guide to building a requirements document for a data warehouse build project — the documented needs the solution must meet, adapted to the realities of building a central data warehouse for analytics.
What a Requirements Document is
A requirements document is the documented needs the solution must meet. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Requirements Document. On a data warehouse build project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.
Why it matters for a Data Warehouse Build project
Data Warehouse Build projects live or die on building a central data warehouse for analytics. A well-built requirements document gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how data warehouse build projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.
What to include
- Business requirements
- Functional requirements
- Non-functional requirements
- Acceptance criteria
- Traceability
Data Warehouse Build-specific considerations
Tailor the requirements document to the risks that most often derail data warehouse build projects:
- Source-system integration
- Data modelling decisions
- Governance and access control
Example
On a real data warehouse build project, the requirements document would be shaped by building a central data warehouse for analytics. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — source-system integration, data modelling decisions, governance and access control — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.