RESOURCE · CHECKLIST

Data warehouse readiness checklist

A warehouse solves specific problems. Answer these before you build one. If most answers are no, a simpler option is usually cheaper and faster.

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  1. How many separate sources must be combined to answer your core questions?
  2. How often must that combined view refresh: monthly, daily, or intra-day?
  3. How many people or tools consume the result, and do they need consistent definitions?
  4. Do metric definitions need to be governed once, centrally, rather than per report?
  5. Is there a named owner who will run and maintain the platform?
  6. What actually breaks today that a warehouse would fix, and could better SQL or a managed connector fix it instead?

Why this works, in depth: Do we actually need a data warehouse yet?