The use of object oriented systems development methodologies in data warehouse development

Abstract

Research has shown that data warehouses potentially offer great investment opportunities to business. To benefit from this, business needs to invest large sums of money. Such investments are very risky, as no guarantee of the success of these ventures can be given. Object-oriented development has proved successful for developing operational systems in industry. This study researches object-oriented techniques to discover whether these techniques could be used successfully in data warehousing. A literature study focuses on the definition of an information systems development methodology and defines the components of such methodology. A further literature study on four popular object-oriented methodologies determines the commonalities of these methodologies. In conclusion, a literature study on data warehouse methodologies is done to discover the phases and techniques used in developing data warehouses. Based on the literature, a method is proposed to build a data warehouse harnessing object-oriented phases and techniques. The proposed method is applied as an interpretive experiment, followed by an evaluation of the data warehouse implemented.