Agile Data Warehouse Design: Collaborative Dimensional Modeling, from Whiteboard to Star Schema

Agile Data Warehouse Design is a step-by-step guide for capturing data warehousing / business intelligence (DW/BI) requirements and turning them into high performance dimensional models in the most direct way: by modelstorming (data modeling + brainstorming) with BI stakeholders.

The book describes BEAM, an agile approach to dimensional modeling, for improving communication between data warehouse designers, BI stakeholders and the whole DW/BI development team. BEAM provides tools and techniques that will encourage DW/BI designers and developers to move away from their keyboards and entity relationship based tools and model interactively with their colleagues. The result is everyone thinks dimensionally from the outset! Developers understand how to efficiently implement dimensional modeling solutions. Business stakeholders feel ownership of the data warehouse they have created, and can already imagine how they will use it to answer their business questions.

Within this book, you will learn:

• Agile dimensional modeling using Business Event Analysis & Modeling (BEAM)
• Modelstorming: data modeling that is quicker, more inclusive, more productive, and frankly more fun!
• Telling dimensional data stories using the 7Ws (who, what, when, where, how many, why and how)
• Modeling by example not abstraction; using data story themes, not crow’s feet, to describe detail
• Storyboarding the data warehouse to discover conformed dimensions and plan iterative development
• Visual modeling: sketching timelines, charts and grids to model complex process measurement – simply
• Agile design documentation: enhancing star schemas with BEAM dimensional shorthand notation
• Solving difficult DW/BI performance and usability problems with proven dimensional design patterns

Lawrence Corr is a data warehouse designer and educator. As Principal of DecisionOne Consulting, he helps clients to review and simplify their data warehouse designs, and advises vendors on visual data modeling techniques. He regularly teaches agile dimensional modeling courses worldwide and has taught dimensional DW/BI skills to thousands of students.