The objective of the project management approach is to define the project management methodologies that will be used on the project.

The approach should be based on the project management framework but should also include reference to and iterative development, or prototyping methodologies that will be utilized.

It is important to provide enough description of the approach but the description should not be be too detailed. It should also be noted here if no specific or a general approach will be used. 

The project approach should also list specific tools or techniques that are not part of the project management framework or not included in the approved information management technology list.

The approach should be based on the agreed information management project methodology. Managed exceptions to the approved methodology should be documented in the project management approach.

The project management approach should include the following key tasks or phases:

Business case analysis

The objective of the business case analysis phase is to determine the business case for investing in a data warehouse or business intelligence solution.  It identifies the projected return on investment.

Planning & analysis

The objectives of the planning and analysis phase are to:

• Identify and secure approval for information management requirements; and
• Complete project planning in sufficient detail to commence technical architecture and design.

Architecture & design

The objective of the architecture and design phase is to define the technical architecture for the entire solution including:

• Database architecture and infrastructure;
• Database sizing and performance expectations;
• Identification of the extract, transform and load process;
• Recommendations for the sizing and configuration of hardware; and
• Access control, backup and recovery guidelines.
  

Build and test

The objectives of the build and test phase are to deliver:

• Code required to extract data from the source systems and load it into a temporary staging area;
• An automated process that will extract data from source systems;
• Programs that will load the data warehouse with the source data from the staging area including all data base scripts for views, indexes, synonyms and aggregations;
• Processes to clean the data in the staging area and ensure that it is fully consistent with business rules;
• Programs and scripts that ensure backup/recovery, access control and archiving;
• System processes to handle the data warehouse manager;
• A query manager to support business intelligence requirements;
• Pre-developed queries and reports and user access tools to access information;
• A set of repeatable system integration, volume and aggregation tests; and
• A set of repeatable manual reconciliation tasks.
  

User acceptance test (UAT)

The objective of the UAT phase is to ensure that the information management solution meets agreed requirements.

Release to production

The objective of this phase is to migrate the information management solution into a production environment. The initial data should be pre-loaded and the Data Warehouse should be tuned for performance, if necessary.

Summary...

The project management approach should be specified in the project implementation plan and describes the  processes, checkpoints and deliverable templates that are required for the project. Managed exceptions to the project management framework should also be noted.