Author Archives: Margy Ross

The short answer is “yes.” The need to focus on business process measurement events, plus grain, dimensions and facts, is as important as ever. When dimensional modeling was popularized several decades ago, we concentrated on schema designs that delivered query performance and ease-of-use. But as I described in Design Tip #160 Think Dimensionally (Beyond Data […]

For my final Design Tip, I’m returning to a fundamental theme that’s not rocket science, but too often ignored: business-IT collaboration. If you buy into the proposition that the true measure of DW/BI success is business acceptance of the deliverables to improve their decision-making, then buying into the importance of collaboration should be easy. Achieving […]

Over the years, we’ve worked with countless exemplary DW/BI project team members: smart, skilled, dedicated, and motivated, coupled with a healthy dose of mutual trust, respect, and camaraderie with their teammates. Teams with members who possess these characteristics tend to fire on all cylinders, with the resulting whole often greater than the sum of the […]

Dimensional designs often need to accommodate multivalued dimensions. Patients can have multiple diagnoses. Students can have multiple majors. Consumers can have multiple hobbies or interests. Commercial customers can have multiple industry classifications. Employees can have multiple skills or certifications. Products can have multiple optional features. Bank accounts can have multiple customers. The multivalued dimension challenge […]

We’re sad to tell you that Warren passed away yesterday. He was diagnosed with an aggressive glioblastoma multiforme brain tumor nearly 14 months ago. Warren and his wife Elizabeth fought the disease with incredible determination and optimism while remaining focused on living life to the fullest. All of us at the Kimball Group will miss […]

Our website and books are loaded with guidance about designing dimensional models for the data warehouse/business intelligence (DW/BI) presentation area. But dimensional modeling concepts go beyond the design of databases that are simple and fast. You should think dimensionally at other critical junctures of a DW/BI project. When gathering requirements for a DW/BI initiative, you […]

Many organizations are embracing agile development techniques for their DW/BI implementations. While we strongly concur with agile’s focus on business collaboration to deliver value via incremental initiatives, we’ve also witnessed agile’s “dark side.” Some teams get myopically focused on a narrowly-defined set of business requirements. They extract a limited amount of source data to develop […]

Ralph introduced the concept of slowly changing dimension (SCD) attributes in 1996. Dimensional modelers, in conjunction with the business’s data governance representatives, must specify the data warehouse’s response to operational attribute value changes. Most Kimball readers are familiar with the core SCD approaches: type 1 (overwrite), type 2 (add a row), and type 3 (add […]

If you subscribe to the Kimball Design Tips, you’re likely already well aware of Ralph Kimball’s contributions to the field of data warehousing and business intelligence. However, many of you may not know about Ralph’s contributions and accomplishments prior to turning his attention to our industry. Ralph’s not someone who seeks the limelight or frequently […]

After years of dormancy, there have been renewed rumblings in the DW/BI industry about the Kimball versus Inmon approaches. When I mentioned the resurrected debate to a former colleague who’s been away from our industry for nearly 15 years, she replied, “Again?!” I’m experiencing a serious case of déjà vu. In fact, we’ve been contacted […]