Quotes from Ralph Kimball

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, 2nd edition,

Four-Step Dimensional Design Process The four key decisions made during the design of a dimensional model include: 1. Select the business process. 2. Declare the grain. 3. Identify the dimensions. 4. Identify the facts.

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by

architect Mies van der Rohe is credited with saying, "God is in the details." Delivering

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

Keys to Great Writing by Stephen Wilbers

On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser (Collins, 2006)

Integration via Conformed Dimensions One of the marquee successes of the dimensional modeling approach has been to define a simple but powerful recipe for integrating data from different business processes.

Dimensions provide the "who, what, where, when, why, and how" context surrounding a business process event. Dimension tables contain the descriptive attributes used by BI applications for filtering and grouping the facts.

Basic Dimension Table Techniques The techniques in this section apply to all dimension tables. Dimension tables are discussed and illustrated in every chapter.

there are four separate and distinct components to consider in the DW/BI environment: operational source systems, ETL system, data presentation area, and business intelligence applications.

This asset is almost always used for two purposes: operational record keeping and analytical decision making. Simply speaking, the operational systems are where you put the data in, and the DW/BI system

Data warehouse support people should be physically located in the business user departments, and while on assignment, should spend all their waking hours devoted to the business content of the departments they serve. Such a relationship engenders trust and credibility with the business users, which ultimately is the "gold coin" for IT. Mistake