The Institutional Research Office, a Catalyst for Change in Data Warehouse Design

Presentation Summary

Eric Elkins and Alice Few; University of Washington

The Institutional Research Office, a Catalyst for Change in Data Warehouse Design

This presentation illustrates the impact of Institutional Research on data warehouse design and development. As decision making entities increase dependencies on accurate and timely data, the Institutional Researcher finds herself in a position of analyzing and reporting in more detail and with more frequency, taxing the architectural limits of a traditional data store. Consequently, the IR’s once limited audience has expanded it requiring a more sophisticated, enterprise level solution. Our goal is to demonstrate how IR has evolved from getting what it can from disparate, heterogeneous data and formal data stores, to becoming a partner in development and design. This partnership illuminates the importance of metadata, master data, data consistency and availability, data granularity, and how front end tools influence the back end structures.