Operational versus analytic data: a highly instructive distinction

A distinction between operational and analytic data is instructive in dealing with the data of an information system. In two recent student projects, decisions as to how to reason about and manipulate data was developed without the benefits of this distinction. In retrospect, understanding this simple distinction would have motivated students to resolve important requirements issues earlier, deepened their discussions about data with system stakeholders, and provided models for data storage, manipulation and management. This distinction, along with an introduction to basic concepts of data warehousing, provides a vocabulary which students can use to communicate and think about information system data. It informs requirements questions and architectural decisions, even in systems which do not warrant the use of a data warehouse.