Gathering formalized information requirements of a data warehouse

Information requirements of a data warehouse (DW) captured in natural language often have a common issue of being ambiguous, inaccurate, or repeating. We offer an approach to formalize DW information requirements based on our experience of using demand-driven methodology for DW conceptual design and distinction between quantifying and qualifying data. In this paper we demonstrate a working prototype of the iReq tool implemented for the purpose of collecting DW information requirements. Graphical user interface (GUI) of the iReq tool conforms to the requirement formalization metamodel acquired as a result of our previous research studies, is intuitive and user-friendly, and allows to define an unlimited number of requirement counterpart elements. The functionality of the iReq tool is wide; it allows deriving a conceptual model of a DW in a semi-automatic manner from gathered information requirements. Due to space limitations, in this paper we cover only such components as GUI for input of the information requirements illustrated with application examples, its underlying formal requirement repository, and a graph database (DB) to represent a glossary of terms for requirement definition.