Summary
This chapter was your first exposure to designing a dimensional model. Regardless of the industry, we strongly encourage the four-step process for tackling dimensional model designs. Remember it is especially important to clearly state the grain associated with a dimensional schema. Loading the fact table with atomic data provides the greatest flexibility because the data can be summarized “every which way.” As soon as the fact table is restricted to more aggregated information, you run into walls when the summarization assumptions prove to be invalid. Also it is vitally important to populate your dimension tables with verbose, robust descriptive attributes for analytic filtering and labeling.
In the next chapter we’ll remain within the retail industry to discuss techniques for tackling a second business process within the organization, ensuring your earlier efforts are leveraged while avoiding stovepipes.