Book Image

The Data Warehouse Toolkit - Third Edition

By : Ralph Kimball, Margy Ross
5 (2)
Book Image

The Data Warehouse Toolkit - Third Edition

5 (2)
By: Ralph Kimball, Margy Ross

Overview of this book

The volume of data continues to grow as warehouses are populated with increasingly atomic data and updated with greater frequency. Dimensional modeling has become the most widely accepted approach for presenting information in data warehouse and business intelligence (DW/BI) systems. The goal of this book is to provide a one-stop shop for dimensional modeling techniques. The book is authored by Ralph Kimball and Margy Ross, known worldwide as educators, consultants, and influential thought leaders in data warehousing and business intelligence. The book begins with a primer on data warehousing, business intelligence, and dimensional modeling, and you’ll explore more than 75-dimensional modeling techniques and patterns. Then you’ll understand dimension tables in-depth to get a good grip on retailing and moved towards the topics of inventory. Moving ahead, you’ll learn how to use this book for procurement, order management, accounting, customer relationship management, and many more business sectors. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to gather all the essential knowledge, practices, and patterns for designing dimensional models.
Table of Contents (31 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Cover
2
Title Page
3
Copyright
4
About the Authors
5
Credits
6
Acknowledgements
29
Index
30
Advertisement
31
End User License Agreement

Design the Dimensional Model

As outlined in Chapter 3: Retail Sales, there are four key decisions made during the design of a dimensional model:

  • Identify the business process.
  • Declare the grain of the business process.
  • Identify the dimensions.
  • Identify the facts.

The first step of identifying the business process is typically determined at the conclusion of the requirements gathering. The prioritization activity described in Chapter 17 establishes which bus matrix row (and hence business process) will be modeled. With that grounding, the team can proceed with the design tasks.

The modeling effort typically works through the following sequence of tasks and deliverables, as illustrated in Figure 18-1:

  • High-level model defining the model’s scope and granularity
  • Detailed design with table-by-table attributes and metrics
  • Review and validation with IT and business representatives
  • Finalization of the design documentation

As with any data modeling effort, dimensional modeling is an...