The Kimball Group Reader: Relentlessly Practical Tools for Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence [Paperback]

Ralph Kimball (Author), Margy Ross (Author), Warren Thornthwaite (Contributor), Joy Mundy (Contributor), Bob Becker (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 8, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0470563109 | ISBN-13: 978-0470563106 | Edition: 1

An unparalleled collection of recommended guidelines for data warehousing and business intelligence pioneered by Ralph Kimball and his team of colleagues from the Kimball Group.

Recognized and respected throughout the world as the most influential leaders in the data warehousing industry, Ralph Kimball and the Kimball Group have written articles covering more than 250 topics that define the field of data warehousing. For the first time, the Kimball Group's incomparable advice, design tips, and best practices have been gathered in this remarkable collection of articles, which spans a decade of data warehousing innovation.

Each group of articles is introduced with original commentaries that explain their role in the overall lifecycle methodology developed by the Kimball Group. These practical, hands-on articles are fully updated to reflect current practices and terminology and cover the complete lifecycle—including project planning, requirements gathering, dimensional modeling, ETL, and business intelligence and analytics.

This easily referenced collection is nothing less than vital if you are involved with data warehousing or business intelligence in any capacity.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

A collection of the most authoritative, detailed, and practical guidelines for data warehousing and business intelligence

Over the past 15 years, Ralph Kimball and his unparalleled team of colleagues have written articles covering more than 250 topics that have come to define the field of data warehousing (DW). The Kimball Group Reader presents the best of these articles, fully updated to reflect their current thinking and practices. Covering the complete lifecycle—including project planning, requirements gathering, dimensional modeling, ETL, and business intelligence (BI) and analytics—the authors provide detailed, technical guidance that expands beyond the Toolkit essentials to provide fresh insights and best practices.

The Reader begins with a group of articles that established the core insights and principles of data warehousing. The content that follows provides detailed guidance for every step of the data warehouse lifecycle, with in-depth, practical guidance that you can leverage for your own projects. After covering project planning and business requirements, the authors take a dive into all things dimensional. There are more than 100 articles on dimensional modeling alone. These articles have been fully revised, updated, and expanded where needed to reflect current best practices established by the Kimball Group.

With incomparable articles providing critical advice for successfully designing, deploying, and maintaining the DW/BI system, The Kimball Group Reader covers:

• Dos and Don'ts for gathering requirements

• The Kimball enterprise data warehouse architecture and matrix

• Dimensional modeling tasks and responsibilities

• Fact table and dimension table core concepts

• Data stewardship for conforming dimensions

• Granularity and three fundamental types of fact tables

• Snowflakes and outriggers

• Bridges for handling multi-valued dimension attributes and ragged variable hierarchies

• Nuances encountered in customer dimensions and internationalization issues

• Slowly changing dimensions and hybrid variations

• Subsystems to extract, transform, and load (ETL) data

• Pros and cons of using a commercial ETL tool

• Server-oriented architecture, master data management, and packaged analytics

• Front-room BI applications and data mining

• Techniques for assessing a mature DW/BW environment and getting it back on track

About the Author

Ralph Kimball, PhD, is the Founder of the Kimball Group and a leading visionary in the data warehouse industry.

Margy Ross is President of the Kimball Group and has focused exclusively on DW/BI solutions since 1982.

Product Details

• Paperback: 744 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (February 8, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470563109
• ISBN-13: 978-0470563106
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1.6 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #167,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #66 in Books > Computers & Technology > Databases > Data Warehousing

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Something Useful March 11, 2010

By Jim Stagnitto

Format:Paperback

Like many data warehousing professionals, I routinely reference legacy Kimball Group articles and tips - which I've found to be amazingly relevant to design problems that I've encountered over the years. They have become part of the essential arsenal of tools that I suit up with when heading out into the decidedly non-academic world of client engagements. Over the years I've been impressed with how remarkably well the advice in these little gems have survived the test of time - which is so often cruel to technology texts.

The Kimball Group Reader brings all of these materials together, conforms differences in vocabulary, and organizes it thematically as a readable field reference. It can be read cover-to-cover, or rifled through for as-needed solutions. Having these articles in one place, written as if by one voice, organized and accessible, is a joy. In a ˝ hour sitting (sadly, my new attention span), I can read through two or three contributions on a topic of interest based on deep practitioner insights and enthusiasm over a period of years, and come away with something useful.

Jim Stagnitto
[...]

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical, useful and to the point March 23, 2010

By Andrea Vincenzi

Format:Paperback

This book is based on articles that had already appeared, in print or on the web, but it's much more than a collection. Even if most of the articles were already stored on my pc in electronic form, having them all put together in a book, revised and organized by topic, is a great advantage.

This is an infinitely useful collection of practical tips that can be immediately used to solve common problems in Data Warehouse projects, belonging to many different areas like dimensional design, project management, performance optimization.

The only disadvantage is the added weight on my backpack, because I'm carrying it with me everywhere I go...

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Over a decade in the making... June 24, 2010

By Nicholas Galemmo

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

As other have stated, this is a compilation of articles written by Dr. Kimball et al spanning from the late 1990's to today. Not only is it a great resource, well organized and complete, but also an interesting history of subtle changes in thinking and approach to dimensional design.

This is the book I was waiting for. It goes much deeper into the thought process, philosphy, and art of dimensional design than any of the previous books. It is a must have for any active practitioner who wishes to gain a better understand of why things are done they way they are done.