Query Management Process in a Data Warehouse
As users become used to the facilities provided by a data warehouse, they will change the kinds of queries they ask. This is inevitable and should be encouraged, because it indicates that users are exploiting the information content of the data warehouse. This implies that query profiles change on a regular basis over the life of a data warehouse, and the original user query requirements may be nothing more than a starting point. Bearing in mind that summary tables are structured around a defined query profile, if the profile changes, the summary tables need to change as well.
In order to accurately monitor and understand what the new query profiles are, it can be very effective to capture the physical queries that are being executed. At various points in time, such as the end of the week, these queries can be analyzed to determine the new query profiles, and the resulting impact on summary tables. This analysis can be manual or automatic. The mechanism is less significant than the fact that the process has to occur. Query capture is typically part of the query management process.