Canada Presentations

Prior to implementing PeopleSoft in 2010-11, Queen's University used a home-grown student information system and data warehouse solution. After nearly ten years of "making do" with Query Manager and ad hoc data collections (generally sets of Excel files on a departmental fileshare) the Registrar's Office and IT Services launched a joint project to build a 'proof of concept' student data mart, including data extraction from PS tables, transformation and storage using a Kimball-inspired star schema, as well as data modeling, reports, and dashboards using Microsoft Power BI.

Through the "Create Student Data Warehouse" (CSDW) project we used Scrum, which was new to most of the project team but created a strong feedback loop where prototypes of data models and reports could be presented for immediate stakeholder feedback, leading directly into prioritization of future sprint and product backlogs. Following the successful launch of the data mart and associated reports and dashboards, we generated broad interest across campus and built a business case for continued investment in new data being added to the mart, to enable the creation and publication of further reports and dashboards.