Synopses & Reviews
A thorough update to the industry standard for designing, developing, and deploying data warehouse and business intelligence systemsThe world of data warehousing has changed remarkably since the first edition of The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit was published in 1998. In that time, the data warehouse industry has reached full maturity and acceptance, hardware and software have made staggering advances, and the techniques promoted in the premiere edition of this book have been adopted by nearly all data warehouse vendors and practitioners. In addition, the term "business intelligence" emerged to reflect the mission of the data warehouse: wrangling the data out of source systems, cleaning it, and delivering it to add value to the business.
Ralph Kimball and his colleagues have refined the original set of Lifecycle methods and techniques based on their consulting and training experience. The authors understand first-hand that a data warehousing/business intelligence (DW/BI) system needs to change as fast as its surrounding organization evolves. To that end, they walk you through the detailed steps of designing, developing, and deploying a DW/BI system. You'll learn to create adaptable systems that deliver data and analyses to business users so they can make better business decisions.
With substantial new and updated content, this second edition of The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit again sets the standard in data warehousing for the next decade. It shows you how to:
Identify and prioritize data warehouse opportunities
Create an architecture plan and select products
Design a powerful, flexible, dimensional model
Build a robust ETL system
Develop BI applications to deliver data to business users
Deploy and sustain a healthy DW/BI environmentv
The authors are members of the Kimball Group. Each has focused on data warehousing and business intelligence consulting and education for more than 15 years; most have written other books in the Toolkit series. Learn more about the Kimball Group and Kimball University at www.kimballgroup.com.
Synopsis
Complete coverage of best practices from data warehouse project inception through on-going program management 30 to 40ew and revised content Updates industry best practices to be in sync with current recommendations of Kimball Group Streamlines the lifecycle methodology to be more efficient and user-friendly Revised tutorial approach to major lifecycle topics (including dimensional modeling, tech architecture, ETL and BI), presenting each in 2 chapters---first on concepts; second on how to techniques At the end of every process/techniques chapter, adds the following new sections: Managing the effort and reducing risk Assuring quality Key roles Estimating considerations Website resources Task list Replaces CD with website resources, including a task list (Microsoft Project format) and templates Targets novice to experienced data warehouse professionals Maintains vendor independence to ensure maximum shelf life
Synopsis
The world of data warehousing has changed remarkably since the first edition of The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit was published in 1998. With this new edition, Ralph Kimball and his colleagues have refined the original set of Lifecycle methods and techniques based on their consulting and training experience. They walk you through the detailed steps of designing, developing, and deploying a data warehousing/business intelligence system. With substantial new and updated content, this second edition again sets the standard in data warehousing for the next decade.
Synopsis
* Presenting the much-anticipated Second Edition, which boasts nearly 40 percent new and revised coverage, reflecting the latest best practices
* This unparalleled tutorial approach covers everything from planning the data warehouse project to implementing the design and managing the data warehouse environment
* The Kimball Group has streamlined the lifecycle methodology to be more efficient and user-friendly based on their thousands of hours of experience in both consulting and training
* They have also revised various lifecycle topics, including dimensional modeling, data warehouse architecture, ETL, and Business Intelligence
* New sections at the end of every process and techniques chapter feature coverage of managing the effort and reducing risk, assuring quality, estimating considerations, Web site resources, and more
About the Author
The authors’ professional careers have followed remarkably similar paths. Each author has focused on data warehousing and business intelligence (DW/BI) consulting and education for more than fifteen years. Most worked together at Metaphor Computer Systems, a pioneering decision support vendor, in the 1980s. All the authors are members of the Kimball Group and teach for KimballUniversity. They contribute regularly to
Intelligent Enterprise magazine and other industry publications; most have previously written books in the
Toolkit series.
Ralph Kimball founded the Kimball Group. Since the mid 1980s, he has been the DW/BI industry’s thought leader on the dimensional approach and trained more than 10,000 IT professionals. Ralph has his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
Margy Ross is President of the Kimball Group. She has focused exclusively on DW/BI since 1982 with an emphasis on business requirements analysis and dimensional modeling. Margy graduated with a BS in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University.
Warren Thornthwaite began his DW/BI career in 1980. After managing Metaphor’s consulting organization, he worked for Stanford University and WebTV. Warren holds a BAin Communications Studies from the University of Michigan and anMBA from the University of Pennsylvania’sWharton School.
JoyMundy has focused onDW/BIsystems since 1992 with stints at Stanford, Web TV, and Microsoft’s SQL Server product development organization. Joy graduated from Tufts University with a BA in Economics, and from Stanford University with an MS in Engineering Economic Systems.
Bob Becker has helped clients across a variety of industries with their DW/BI challenges and solutions since 1989, including extensive work with health care organizations. Bob has a BSB in Marketing from the University of Minnesota’s School of Business.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments.
Introduction.
Chapter 1 Introducing the Kimball Lifecycle.
Chapter 2 Launching and Managing the Project/Program.
Chapter 3 Collecting the Requirements.
Chapter 4 Introducing the Technical Architecture.
Chapter 5 Creating the Architecture Plan and Selecting Products.
Chapter 6 Introducing Dimensional Modeling.
Chapter 7 Designing the Dimensional Model.
Chapter 8 Designing the Physical Database and Planning for Performance.
Chapter 9 Introducing Extract, Transformation, and Load.
Chapter 10 Designing and Developing the ETL System.
Chapter 11 Introducing Business Intelligence Applications.
Chapter 12 Designing and Developing Business Intelligence Applications.
Chapter 13 Deploying and Supporting the DW/BI System.
Chapter 14 Expanding the DW/BI System.
Glossary.