Time marches on and soon the collective retirement of the Kimball Group will be upon us. In my final Design Tip, I would like to share the perspective for DW/BI success I’ve gained from my 26 years in the data warehouse/business intelligence industry. While data warehousing has been around now for a long while, there […]
Before Diving In
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 […]
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 […]
If you’re a long time reader of the Kimball articles, Design Tips and books, you know we feel strongly about the importance of understanding the business’s data and analytic requirements. Suffice it to say that we expect more than merely inventorying the existing reports and data files; we encourage you to immerse yourself in the business community […]
Ralph’s first article on data warehousing appeared in 1995. During the subsequent 13 years, we’ve written hundreds of articles and Design Tips, as well as published seven books. Remarkably, the concepts that Ralph introduced in the 1990s have withstood the test of time and remain relevant today. However, some of our vocabulary has evolved slightly over the years. This […]
I worked at a company called Metaphor back in the early 1980s. As part of a startup software company introducing then-cutting-edge concepts (such as folders, file drawers, and workflows on a graphical electronic desktop), I appreciated the benefits of using metaphors to represent seemingly complex concepts. Effective verbal and visual metaphors are able to convert complexity into […]