As other have stated, this is a compilation of articles written by Dr. Kimball et al spanning from the late 1990's to today. Not only is it a great resource, well organized and complete, but also an interesting history of subtle changes in thinking and approach to dimensional design.
This is the book I was waiting for. It goes much deeper into the thought process, philosphy, and art of dimensional design than any of the previous books. It is a must have for any active practitioner who wishes to gain a better understand of why things are done they way they are done.
Author(s): Ralph Kimball, Margy Ross, Warren Thornthwaite, Joy Mundy, Bob Becker
Publisher: Wiley
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 747
The Kimball Group Reader: Relentlessly Practical Tools for Data Warehousing and Businss Intelligence......Page 1
About the Authors......Page 7
Contents at a Glance......Page 11
Contents......Page 13
Preview of Contents......Page 23
Navigation Aids......Page 25
Terminology Notes......Page 26
Setting Up for Success......Page 27
Tackling DW/BI Design and Development......Page 32
Historical Perspective......Page 61
Dealing with Demanding Realities......Page 71
Professional Responsibilities......Page 95
Justification and Sponsorship......Page 111
Kimball Methodology......Page 122
Gathering Requirements......Page 139
Organizing around Business Processes......Page 149
Wrapping Up the Requirements......Page 154
Making the Case for Dimensional Modeling......Page 159
Enterprise Data Warehouse Bus Architecture......Page 174
Integration Instead of Centralization......Page 187
Contrast with the Corporate Information Factory......Page 197
Basics of Dimensional Modeling......Page 205
Dos and Don’ts......Page 222
Myths about Dimensional Modeling......Page 227
Design Activities......Page 235
Design Review Activities......Page 249
Granularity......Page 259
Types of Fact Tables......Page 268
Parent-Child Fact Tables......Page 288
Fact Table Keys and Degenerates......Page 294
Miscellaneous Fact Table Design Patterns......Page 299
Dimension Table Keys......Page 311
Date and Time Dimension Considerations......Page 316
Miscellaneous Dimension Patterns......Page 325
Slowly Changing Dimensions......Page 341
Snowflakes, Outriggers, and Bridges......Page 359
Dealing with Hierarchies......Page 377
Customer Issues......Page 392
Addresses and International Issues......Page 400
Industry Scenarios and Idiosyncrasies......Page 415
Planning the ETL System......Page 451
Data Quality Considerations......Page 480
Populating Fact and Dimension Tables......Page 507
Supporting Real Time......Page 529
Overall Technical/System Architecture......Page 539
Presentation Server Architecture......Page 561
Front Room Architecture......Page 586
Metadata......Page 592
Infrastructure and Security Considerations......Page 598
Delivering Value with Business Intelligence......Page 615
Implementing the Business Intelligence Layer......Page 627
Mining Data to Uncover Relationships......Page 641
Dealing with SQL......Page 655
Deploying Successfully......Page 677
Sustaining for Ongoing Impact......Page 687
Article Index......Page 711
Index......Page 719
