BEAM Template Overview has created a number of excel templates that you can use to document the BEAM and Modelstorming outputs. These templates have been published by Lawrence as Creative Commons so can be readily shared. There are three templates:.
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Modelstormer Use this to excel template to document each Business Events and the Detail of Detail. Event Matrix Use this excel template to visualise all the Business Events and how they share Core Business Entities. BEAM Model Canvas Based on the Business Model Canvas this pdf template enables you to provide a high level view of the Core Business Entities, regardless of the Business Events they align with. There are also some supporting documents that Lawrence has created.
BEAM Reference Card A pdf cheat sheet of the BEAM reference codes.
Page Templates.
You might imagine the steps in this process reminded me of the paper folds of a nonsense story – only with less amusing results – but it was actually Lawrence’s alternative agile approach: BEAM (Business Event Analysis and Modeling) which triggered my childhood memories. BEAM is based on exploring the 7Ws of data: Who? And HoW many? With BI stakeholders – very similar questions to nonsense, you will agree. However, the key difference from the game and the advantage over “traditional” interviewing of stakeholders is that the answers are immediately visible and understandable to everyone – not hidden in paper folds or multiple personal interview notes. BEAM allows larger groups of stakeholders to collaborate on defining their data requirements by telling “data stories” that explain the Who does What, the Where and When, the How and Why, and the How many (measurement) of significant business events.
The approach, dubbed “modelstorming”, is very interactive and visual, making great use of whiteboards, flipcharts, wall space and (most importantly) Post-It notes. The participants have to work together to answer the 7W questions, building up data stories by placing their answers on Post-Its on a timeline, business event matrix, BI model canvas or other BEAM templates, which facilitate interaction and discussion between the stakeholders, business analysts and DW/BI designers in a very natural way.
The outcome of this collaboration is a prioritised list of business processes broken down into measurable business events that identify (conformed and non-conformed) dimensions and measures, history recording requirements and data sources to be profiled. This shared definition enables the project team to work through the requirements in an agile way by agreeing milestones to deliver incremental functionality and value to the business in a matter of weeks rather than months (and sometimes years).
In creating BEAM, Lawrence has integrated his own broad experience in gathering business requirements and designing data warehouses and BI solutions, key principles of agile software design and development as well as visual and collaborative approaches to brainstorming. The result is a fun and interactive way to bridge the business vs. IT gap, which is timely, welcome and refreshing: anything but nonsense. To learn more about Lawrence’s work, visit his website –, read his book (sample available at ) or go on one of as I did.
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