Rachel - Glad Inmon's book is working for you. I have only read (or more correctly attempted to read) his articles, which can be found at http://www.datawarehousing.com/, or at least they previously were available. - Just be aware that when you switch from reading Inmon or one of his followers to Kimball or one of his followers, that the meaning of some terms change. - The oldest Kimball articles at http://www.intelligententerprise.com/ports/search_webhouse.shtml are the best to start with because they describe the fundamentals of data warehouse design. - I still think the email list is one of the best resources. For help with list commands, send a message to <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> with the word "help" in the body of the message. (I'm listing these for the benefit of others on this list) Not to discourage you, but companies often take the approach of yours, and hire consultants to build the site. They tend to go into a corner and develop it and then unveil it when they are "finished", collect their check and leave. If you ask questions, it is easy for them to blow past you because they are the experts. So from that standpoint, don't panic, just go along for the ride and what you can learn. But it is good to read up on warehousing so you can ask intelligent questions and don't sound like a dinosaur by asking questions like "whaddya mean it isn't normalized?". In DW, the real participants are the ones that interview the potential users and try to locate data the users will find useful. The DBA tends to be the one that gets ordered to load 100-gig of data every night. DW work is like a lot of other DBA work, but quite different in some respects. At least with the email list, if something sounds odd, you can ask some real people for some input. Dennis Williams DBA Lifetouch, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----Original Message----- Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2002 8:13 AM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L Outdated? 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 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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. > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > -----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." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > 05/21/2002 05:48 PM > Please respond to ORACLE-L > > > To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > 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 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > -----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. > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > -----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 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > 05/20/2002 05:53 PM > Please respond to ORACLE-L > > > To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > cc: > Subject: Re: Data Warehouse experts, a simple question > for > you > > > looks like published aug of 98 for that book?, like $60? > > joe > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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 === __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? LAUNCH - Your Yahoo! Music Experience http://launch.yahoo.com -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: Rachel Carmichael INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: DENNIS WILLIAMS INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
