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Designing A Data Warehouse

The author's basic premise is that the chief purpose of a data warehouse should be to maximize the power of Customer Relationship Management. He covers all of the basic data warehouse concepts and then provides a conceptual model of a Wine Club as the basic example for the book. I find his use of the model exceptional, in that he starts with a transactional data model for this example and then proceeds to extend it into a well-formed dimensional data warehouse. This is rather exceptional, in that I have found that many data warehouse authors are so intent on proving the superiority of dimensional modeling that they often harshly criticize the underlying transactional models as "not representing the business problem." I have always found this to be an unfair proposition and support that idea that databases which are designed to support transaction processing are not necessarily good for decision support but that the transactional environment must be fully understood before formulating a dimensional solution.

The book deals extensively with one of the most critical elements in data warehouse design: the problem of how to handle time in the model. He examines many different roles that time plays in the model, including its role in the construction of dimensions.

The crux of his analytical efforts come with the introdution of his "Dot Modeling" method. This method provides a simple, but highly useful, conceptual framework for generating the logical model of the data warehouse. It also gives explicit support for handling most of the time-related issues. A major added benefit is that the basic Dot Modeling constructs are far simpler yet more complete than standard Entity/Relationship modeling diagrams, which makes it a joy to use with end users, who are able to construct complete and easy to comprehend data models without being required to learn any arcane Parent/Child terminologies or be dragged down into a discussion of the pros and cons of a Snowflaked model.

The rest of the book covers many other essentials of data warehouse construction, including physical implementation issues, an excellent discusion on the business justification for the project and its importance for success, and project management suggestions.

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Rating:
2.5 out of 5 by Book123