Project Management in Data Warehouse Implementations: A Literature Review

Project management (PM) is a vital part of any data warehouse (DWH) implementation due to its complexity, time constraints, size, high costs, and importance to business. To help achieve efficient PM, project managers require a source of reference that aggregates the previously acquired body of knowledge (BOK) and presents the discovered findings. Yet, no such resource currently exits. Furthermore, no evaluation of the existing BOK has been made, which obstructs its current understanding and hinders future enhancements in the field. The goal of this paper is to remove these gaps by conducting a systematic review of the literature. The review identified 33 relevant studies. Results show that the current literature mostly covers global considerations and research on DWH requirements analysis techniques and that only a small number of studies were conducted to assist project managers. The review method incorporated two research dimensions used to synthesize, interpret and present the findings: the PMBOK® Guide's PM knowledge areas (PMKAs) and DWH stage. The majority of identified studies pertained to integration management, followed by scope management PMKAs. The biggest research gap was discovered for procurement management PMKA. The project initiation/planning DWH stage is most frequently analyzed in existing studies, followed by requirement analysis and database design. Findings from the identified studies are incorporated into a reference map in order to serve project managers as a reference point for additional guidance in their projects and an agenda for further research is provided for researchers looking to contribute to the field.