Jim Schardt’s Blog

To avoid the “foreign language” feeling for users of a BI/DW system you must start with the decision makers. They are the ones who are going to use business intelligence profitably. They are the ones that turn the information in your data warehouse into usable knowledge. So, just talk to the users. It sounds so simple.
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Sometimes Decision Makers view the Business Intelligence system as if it were a foreign language. They took the training. They tried to get information out of the system. But they gave up because the terms
used in the interface between them and the Data Warehouse are not the terms they use to conduct business. For instance, the Manager of Sales is thinking, “Account.” To them account is a shorthand for customer account which embodies the name of the customer, and some sense of who that customer is. When they get to the BI system they see, “Party.” Party in this context relates to participants in a sales transaction, one of which is the customer. I say account you say party, let’s call the whole thing off.
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