Re: Data Warehouse experts, a simple question for you| Outdated?

That's not panicking, just common sense. Too many data warehouse projects went down the drain so you need to learn all you can before starting such project.

Yechiel Adar
Mehish
----- Original Message -----
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com> Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2002 3:13 PM

> Dennis,
>
> I have on my desk, all in varying stages of being read:
> Inmon's book Building the Data Warehouse (very understandable)
>
> Kimball's articles from his site and from the Intelligententerprise.com
> site (somewhat understandable, I think you need a base from which to
> read his articles). His books are on order and should arrive today
>
> Tim Gorman's book Essential Oracle8i Data Warehousing (this I haven't
> started, as Tim tells me to read it AFTER I have a basic understanding
> of data warehousing)
>
> The Oracle8i Data Warehousing documentation (actually pretty readable
> and understandable)
>
> Ya think I might be over-researching this stuff and panicking a bit?
>
> Rachel
>
> --- DENNIS WILLIAMS <DWILLIAMS_at_LIFETOUCH.COM> wrote:
> > Ian,
> >
> > - In the beginning was the data warehouse and yeah it was good. It
> > would
> > solve all corporate problems and would encompass all corporate data
> > so all
> > corporate minions would see the same data.
> > - But yeah it took so long to create the corporate data warehouse
> > that
> > management despaired and canceled the project. Or by the time the
> > monster
> > data warehouse came blinking and straining into the daylight all the
> > users
> > said that the company had evolved in the meanwhile and the warehouse
> > was
> > obsolete.
> > - So data warehouses gained a bad rep from corporate managers and
> > yeah
> > none would fain to propose the conception of a data warehouse for
> > fear of
> > castigation.
> > - Then some marketing interns bribed a DBA to send them data
> > weekly. And
> > they stored this data in a database and lo, their superiors were
> > impressed.
> > - Everyone was in awe of the marketing database, but none dared
> > tarnish it
> > by speaking the name which shall not be mentioned, so it was
> > christened a
> > "data mart".
> > - And lo, the data marts multiplied and were fruitful. And the DBA
> > cursed
> > the day she was weak and did give data to the marketing interns.
> > - Then another prophet did arise and did challenge the prophet
> > Kimball.
> > His name was Inmon. And he did claim to be the progenitor of data
> > warehouses. And therefore all should do data warehousing his way and
> > use his
> > terms.
> > - And great confusion arose over the land. And many debates ensued,
> > including some face to face between Inmon and Kimball. And terms such
> > as
> > Operational Data Store (ODS) were bandied about.
> > - And some said that queries against the ODS were acceptable and
> > others
> > deemed them forbidden. And some said that if it looks like a data
> > warehouse
> > and smells like a data warehouse it verily indeed is a data
> > warehouse.
> > - And consultants warred against consultants and did call the other
> > consultants ignoramuses in front of management such that nobody knew
> > what
> > anybody was talking about.
> > - And the DBAs said that creating a data warehouse or data mart was
> > not
> > nearly as hard as figuring out what to call it.
> >
> > The moral of the story is to figure out what you need to do and be
> > aware
> > that different authors use the same terms for different purposes and
> > coin
> > their own terms. Personally, I have understood everything that
> > Kimball has
> > written and have never been able to read one of Inmon's articles to
> > the end.
> > But maybe that is just me.
> > Dennis Williams
> > DBA
> > Lifetouch, Inc.
> > dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 2:38 PM
> > To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> > Outdated?
> >
> >
> > Ian,
> >
> > Good question. I think that I've seen more recenct references in
> > articles
> > that state the current thinking of DW/DM. I'm sure that I've seen
> > Inmon
> > refer to them that way, or maybe it was Richard Winter?
> >
> > Anyway, I guess that part is a bit dated. There is so much good
> > information
> > in that book though, that it's still worth its weight in gold. You
> > won't
> > find too many
> > publications for $60 that will take you step by step through building
> > an
> > entire
> > data warehouse, including the infrastructure.
> >
> > Jared
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > "MacGregor, Ian A." <ian_at_SLAC.Stanford.EDU>
> > Sent by: root_at_fatcity.com
> > 05/21/2002 05:48 PM
> > Please respond to ORACLE-L
> >
> >
> > To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> > <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>
> > cc:
> > Subject: RE: Data Warehouse experts, a simple question
> > for
> > you| Outdated?
> >
> >
> > I am new to his books, three chapters in. The first release of the
> > "Data
> > Warehouse Toolkit" defines a data warehouse much as a data mart is
> > today.
> > Today we think of a data warehouse as having a highly normalized
> > structure which stores information from various sources. We build
> > data
> > marts with structures optimized for querying; e.g., star schemas,
> > from the
> > warehouse. Kimball writes of the warehouse itself being based on a
> > star
> > schema.
> >
> > The term data warehouse has not been immutable over the years. It
> > was
> > probably defined exactly as he has done when the book was first
> > written.
> > Do his new books redefine "data warehouse"?
> >
> > Ian MacGregor
> > Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
> > ian_at_SLAC.Stanford.edu
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2002 2:16 PM
> > To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> >
> >
> > I second Jared's opinion. Ralph's books are clear and easy to read.
> > This
> > is
> > the fundamentals of data warehousing.
> > Dennis Williams
> > DBA
> > Lifetouch, Inc.
> > dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2002 2:30 PM
> > To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> >
> >
> > Yup, $60, and worth every penny.
> >
> > It may be 4 years old, but the information is still pertinent.
> >
> > Jared
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Joe Testa <jtesta_at_dmc-it.com>
> > Sent by: root_at_fatcity.com
> > 05/20/2002 05:53 PM
> > Please respond to ORACLE-L
> >
> >
> > To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> > <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>
> > cc:
> > Subject: Re: Data Warehouse experts, a simple question
> > for
> > you
> >
> >
> > looks like published aug of 98 for that book?, like $60?
> >
> > joe
> >
> >
> > Jared.Still_at_radisys.com wrote:
> >
> > >Joe,
> > >
> > >Add a generated PK to the time dimension. The PK is stored
> > >as an FK in the fact table.
> > >
> > >That way you can select from the time dimension by year, day, qtr,
> > >whatever,
> > >and easily pick out the correct fact table rows.
> > >
> > >"The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit" includes a spreadsheet to
> > generate
> >
> === message truncated ===
>
>
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Author: Yechiel Adar
  INET: adar76_at_inter.net.il

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