BI Improvement

I was assigned to lead the BI improvement task in my organization and I started off with a very detail study of the existing BW environment from the start of the system to date. To tell a technical story is always based on facts and statistic.To link statistic to improvement is a challenge. There are thousands of BW objects and to start is a challenge itself.

So I started out by accessing the current state from three perspectives -> Common Shared Layer, Data Integrity and Usage. I tracked down the objects in a chronological manner by years and projects. To determine common shared objects and layers, I go into the main multiprovider that zooms down to the datasources. I listed down all the datasources and the direct propagation layers. Next I listed down all the main infoobjects use in the main query and map it to the business context. And I checked on the last access date of the query. 

With this analysis results, I am able to derive the statistic on the number of projects that do not shared the common layers and objects to prove that the projects run in silo, how many master data with the same business context are created to prove that there is no single source of truth for reporting within the same ECC module and the last access of the queries to prove the BI usage. This analysis will act as the current state to measure how much we are able to improve by comparing the same statistics after implementing the improvements plan.

And how does this relate to cost saving over the time? That is my next challenge to come up with facts and findings that can tell this 'story' from financial perspective. 

Data Lineage in SAP Environment

It is great to hear that SAP metadata management has the coverage of end to end SAP environment that leverage on Information Steward features such as Metadata Management and Metapedia. But the tool itself cannot be a standalone feature when it comes to the  purpose of data lineage initiatives that is to ensure the data accuracy and data standardization. We still need to enforce a process to govern the custom master data metadata in BW environment that must be rooted to the source of master data in ECC.

This is a good read on Metadata Management in SAP Landscape.