Dimensional Data Modeling Course Content
Project/Program Planning
- Professional Responsibilities
- Professional Boundaries
- An Engineer’s View
- Beware the Objection Removers
- What Does the Central Team Do?
- Avoid DW/BI Isolation
- Implementation Analysis Paralysis
- Kimball Methodology
- Kimball Lifecycle in a Nutshell
- Think Critically When Applying Best Practices
- Eight Guidelines for Low Risk Enterprise Data Warehousing
Requirements Definition
- Gathering Requirements
- Business Requirements
- Requirements Gathering Dos and Don’ts
- Surprising Value of Data Profiling
- Organizing around Business Processes
- Focus on Business Processes, Not Business  Departments!
- Identifying Business Processes
- Business Process Decoder Ring
Data Architecture
- Making the Case for Dimensional Modeling
- Is ER Modeling Hazardous to DSS?
- A Dimensional Modeling Manifesto
- There Are No Guarantees
- Enterprise Data Warehouse Bus Architecture
- Divide and Conquer
- The Matrix
- The Matrix: Revisited
- Drill Down into a Detailed Bus Matrix
- Integration Instead of Centralization
- Integration for Real People
- Data Stewardship : The First Step to Quality And ÂConsistency
- To Be or Not To Be Centralized
- Contrast with the Corporate Information Factory
- Differences of Opinion
- Don’t Support Business Intelligence with a Normalized EDW
Dimensional Modeling Fundamentals
- Basics of Dimensional Modeling
- Fact Tables and Dimension Tables
- Drilling Down, Up, and Across
- Myths about Dimensional Modeling
- Dangerous Preconceptions
- Fables and Facts
Fact Table Core Concepts
- Granularity
- Declaring the Grain
- Keep to the Grain in Dimensional Modeling
- Types of Fact Tables
- Fundamental Grains
- Factless Fact Tables
- Factless Fact Tables? Sound Like Jumbo Shrimp?
- What Didn’t Happen
- Parent-Child Fact Tables
- Patterns to Avoid When Modeling Header/Line
- Item Transactions
- Fact Table Keys and Degenerates
- Fact Table Surrogate Keys
- Reader Suggestions on Fact Table Surrogate Keys
- Miscellaneous Fact Table Design Patterns
- Put Your Fact Tables on a Diet
- Keeping Text Out of the Fact Table
- Dealing with Nulls in a Dimensional Model
Dimension Table Core Concepts
- Dimension Table Keys
- Surrogate Keys
- Keep Your Keys Simple
- Date and Time Dimension Considerations
- It’s Time for Time
- Surrogate Keys for the Time Dimension
- Latest Thinking on Time Dimension Tables
- Smart Date Keys to Partition Fact Tables
- Handling All the Dates
- Miscellaneous Dimension Patterns
- Data Warehouse Role Models
- Mystery Dimensions
- De-Clutter with Junk Dimensions
- Showing the Correlation Between Dimensions
- Causal (Not Casual) Dimensions
- Resist Abstract Generic Dimensions
- Hot-Swappable Dimensions
- Accurate Counting with a Dimensional Supplement
- Slowly Changing Dimensions
- Perfectly Partitioning History with Type SCD
- Many Alternate Realities
- Monster Dimensions
- When a Slowly Changing Dimension Speeds Up
- When Do Dimensions Become Dangerous?
- Slowly Changing Dimensions Are Not Always as easy as
More Dimension Patterns and Case Studies
- Snowflakes, Outriggers, and Bridges
- A Trio of Interesting Snowflakes
- Help for Dimensional Modeling
- Managing Bridge Tables
- The Keyword Dimension
- Dealing with Hierarchies
- Maintaining Dimension Hierarchies
- Help for Hierarchies
- Five Alternatives for Better Employee Dimensional Modeling
- Alternate Hierarchies
