Blog: William McKnight

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LaMarmotta and the abandoned data warehouse

At a place now called La Marmotta, which is on Lake Bracciano, less than 20 miles northwest of Rome, a lake village has been found from 5700 B. C. (link: fee required). After several months of careful vacuuming in 1994, a 35-foot-long dugout canoe emerged. It was seaworthy, not just lake-worthy. Several years ago, a team bulit a copy and sailed nearly 500 miles along the Mediterranean coast.

The Marmottans came from far away. They brought pigs and cows, they cultivated flax and made wine. Pots contained grains and bones, the remains of Neolithic stew. They were in touch with other communities in the Mediterranean with many ships coming and going. That coming and going lasted more than 400 years. It was a well-organized village.

The settlement survived for at least 4 centuries before it was abandoned, suddenly and mysteriously, in about 5230 B. C.

I'm sure the Marmottans did not plan on abandoning their settlement suddenly and I'm sure it was a tough decision, brought on by peril - perhaps from other people, perhaps from a land producing less. (Here's the tie-in...) I also see many data warehouse projects abandoned, also usually with haste and without the team seeing it coming. Sometimes it is the right decision. Usually there are successful elements you'd like to carry over to any new efforts.

It could mean new technology, a new team, new leadership or new architecture. But many times it means new processes like metadata, performance management, ROI measurement, communication, change control, data quality, data stewardship and the like. Outside expert help, without the emotional attachment to the environment, can help produce the right go-forward plan from a non-producing warehouse environment.

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