Data Warehouse Testing: It’s All about the Planning

Today’s data warehouses are complex and contain heterogeneous data from many different sources. Testing these warehouses is complex, requiring exceptional human and technical resources. So how do you achieve the desired testing success? Geoff Horne believes that it is through test planning that includes technical artifacts such as data models, business rules, data mapping documents, and data warehouse loading design logic. Wayne shares planning checklists, a test plan outline, concepts for data profiling, and methods for data verification. He demonstrates how to effectively create a test strategy to discover empty fields, missing records, truncated data, duplicate records, and incorrectly applied business rules—all of which can dramatically impact the usefulness of the data warehouse. Learn common pitfalls, which can cost your business hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, when test planning shortcuts are taken. If you work in an environment that often performs data warehouse testing without proper planning and technical skills, this session is for you.