Datawarehouse

The Kimball Group Reader
Relentlessly Practical Tools for Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence

Ralph Kimball Margy Ross
with Bob Becker, Joy Mundy, and Warren Thornthwaite

The Kimball Group Reader

The Kimball Group Reader
Relentlessly Practical Tools for Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence
Ralph Kimball Margy Ross with Bob Becker, Joy Mundy, and Warren ThornthwaiteThe Kimball Group Reader; Relentlessly Practical Tools for Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN 46256
www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2010 Ralph Kimball and Margy Ross Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: 978-0-470-56310-6 Manufactured in the UnitedStates of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorizationthrough payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Limitof Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategiescontained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that anorganization or Web site is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work waswritten and when it is read. For general information on our other products and services please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (877) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library ofCongress Control Number: 2009942822 Trademarks: Wiley and the Wiley logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/ or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned inthis book.

About the Authors
Ralph Kimball founded the Kimball Group. Since the mid 1980s, he has been the DW/BI industry’s thought leader on the dimensional approach and has trained more than 10,000 IT professionals. Prior to working at Metaphor and founding Red Brick Systems, Ralph co-invented the Star workstation at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Ralph has a Ph.D. in Electrical...