Knowledge Management Domain

The Knowledge Management Domain provides standards and policies on organizing, analyzing, and presenting information. Primary topics covered in this section include the DHS' Data Warehouse, Metadata repository, electronic document formats, web publishing, workflow system processes and document management system processes. The standards and policies in this domain will increase productivity and bring about a higher quality of service by providing a de facto standard for accessing, analyzing, and maintaining DHS' information.

The Knowledge Management Domain includes the following subsections:

  • Business Intelligence (BI) - A technology-driven process for analyzing data and presenting actionable information to help business users make informed business decisions. BI should be related to strategic, tactical, and operational business objectives. A data warehouse is often the foundation that business intelligence is built upon.
  • Online Analytical Processing - Online Analytical Processing - Business analysts use Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) tools to access, analyze, and share information interactively. OLAP tools provide multidimensional analysis, graphing, trend analysis, calculating, and summarizing capabilities.
  • Dashboards and Visualizations: Business analysts and supervisor level staff use dashboards and visualizations to provide ‘at-a-glance’ information on the status of the department and the programs it oversees. Dashboards and visualizations also are used to provide detail level review through specific, guided, drill-down functionality.
  • Query and Reporting - Business analysts use query and reporting tools to perform ad hoc queries against the data warehouse in order to view key performance information about DHS. This section provides all standards and policies around the query and reporting tool used at DHS.

 


Business Intelligence
A technology-driven process for analyzing data and presenting actionable information to help business users make informed business decisions. A data warehouse is often the foundation that business intelligence is built upon. This section provides all standards and policies around the query and reporting tool used at DHS.
 
        Standards

       Guidelines

       Tools

  • IBM Cognos 10 BI - Report Studio
  • IBM Cognos Analytics
  • IBM Cognos Access Manager
  • OLAP - Cognos PowerPlay, Transformer
Data Analysis
The Data Analysis Unit works with users to identify how they can turn their data into useful information to monitor and manage their programs. The unit assists users in identifying and locating the data needed to perform their job function and works with upper management to identify key performance indicators (KPIs) and performance metrics. The unit uses analytics to uncover relationships and patterns within large volumes of data. This Unit is responsible for creating dashboards, scorecards and metrics management as well as reviewing this type of work when it is developed by contractors.
 
       Data Analysis Policy

Data Analysis Tools

  • Tableau: The main tool used by the Data Analysis Unit is Tableau. Dashboards and stories are created in Tableau and published to the Commonwealth Tableau servers. The Commonwealth maintains Tableau servers inside and outside the firewall including one site that is used for public dashboards.
Data Warehouse
A data warehouse, also known as an Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW), is an application used for reporting and data analysis. An EDW is a collection of integrated data from one or more disparate online transactional processing (OLTP) application sources contained in a structure specifically and solely designed to support analysis and reporting. This structure will have little resemblance to OLTP source system databases and is used for creating analytical reports by and for knowledge workers throughout the enterprise. The EDW should support a consistent strategic view of data across the enterprise.
 
        Policy

Standards

Guidelines

Templates and Forms

Tools

  • Data Modeling - ERwin
  • ETL - Informatica
  • Database - Oracle
Metadata
information about data (that is, data definitions, data aliases, where OLTP and OLAP data reside). The metadata repository is an important aspect for a successful data warehouse effort because it contains all the information about the data and processes used to populate and access a data warehouse. 
 
       Policy
  • Enterprise policy ensuring the capture and maintenance of metadata and to establish minimum requirements for the specification and documentation of metadata for all enterprise systems development initiatives.

Standards

Examples and Best Practices

Templates And Forms

Enterprise Content Management
Deals with strategies, methods, and tools used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes to employees, business partners, and clients of DHS. 
 
       Standards

Tools

  • Enterprise Content Management — DocuShare
  • Imaging — DocuShare, FileClerk, Conveyor, eCopy
  • Business Process Management — DocuShare
  • Web 2.0 Technologies — DocuShare
Geographic Information System (GIS) Mapping
Provide a means for users to store, analyze, and display information about places on a desired map. The key components of GIS software include tools for entering and manipulating geographic information, such as addresses or political boundaries. Such tools provide an intuitive user interface and allow the effective use of maps to analyze, query and print geographical information. 
 
       Standards

Tools

  • ESRI — ArcIMS, ArcGIS, RouteMap
  • Innovative Systems — iLytics, GeoOnline