Agile Data Warehouse Design: Collaborative Dimensional Modeling, from Whiteboard to Star Schema

Corr & Stagnitto have applied the essence of Agile - process light, rapid prototyping - to the issue of Data Model design in an intuitive and easy to follow manner. The beauty of the approach for me, as is outlined with remarkable clarity in the book, is the bringing together of the business users in the process, and early in the process at that to help derive business insight. Well worth a read. As someone who has faced that "process gap" - where you need knowledge of the business and of good data modelling design - at the same time - this provides an easy first step approach to addressing that issue. The book itself provides a number of well thought out examples to illustrate the approach as well as a library of further resources and links - including to Lawrence's own site where you can download the templates referred to within.

I love Business Intelligence and data warehousing, in fact you could say my career is my 'hobby'. There are very few books I have read on the topic in recent years that have excited me as much as this one! It confirms what I always suspected - data warehousing CAN be done in an agile way! The BEAM* approach as laid out in this book is so 'accessible' and practical to EVERYone who may be involved in a data warehousing project, from business users, to business analysts, project managers and even the most hardened techy developers. It creates a new 'easy language' for communication between these different contributors to the project/solution. The method is inclusive and collaborative, as well as thorough and logical, yet so simple and practical, and can be adapted to any complexity with ease i.e. agile. The book it's self is nicely laid out, with plenty of real examples to demonstrate the concepts. Even concepts I was familiar with before, are explained very well and a great intro for anyone not familiar with or a bit daunted by data warehousing. I recommended this book to my colleagues (PM's, BA's, developers, architects) and since going on the course with Lawrence they haven't stopped talking about the methods and can't wait to unleash their new found skills on the next analaysis meetings we are having with the business. I personally think the approach is 'revolutionary' in it's simple elegance and real life usefulness, and will be recommending this book with all my BI passion to anyone remotely attached to any data warehouse project!

Bought this for a colleague who is on a challenging Data Warehousing project and he has found it very useful and a good reference point. Well written and lot's of good examples.

This is the book we've been waiting for in the world of Data Warehousing and Multi Dimensional design. It genuinely tackles Agile for Data Warehousing and does it very well. The secret really is to have iterative collaboration across the board from all interested parties and there are templates and modeling canvases to remind you who should be involved and why. It's a natural and great extension to the wonderful work of Ralph Kimball and augments RB's work and more. I've really enjoyed the very clear notation practice it proposes and it seems to work very well thus far in my practical implementation of the proposed designs. Having been in the DW BI game for 30+ years Ralph's (and colleagues) and now this book makes the job both easier and enjoyable as you are presented with well proven and clear design methodologies. I have personally found it a sheer joy to read with its numerous real life examples and challenges, and better still put into immediate use on a very large scale Data Warehouse project for the Retail industry although it'll fit any industry vertical. Extremely well done Lawrence and Jim.

The Agile Data Warehouse Design book is a great read; the content is clear, concise and informative with a format that facilitates quick reading and diving into relevant areas of interest which is perfect for reference. Being an experienced BI / DW consultant I practice many of the concepts already but still found the book engaging to read. I will particularly benefit from BEAM as this technique fills a gap in my portfolio of skills by providing a structured approach to capturing business questions and user stories which are aligned to the business process. I am keen to put my new knowledge into practice with some modelstorming and to continue my reading list with some of your recommendations for visual thinking, collaboration and facilitation, and business modelling.

I bought this book when I noticed the high number of 5 star ratings. I have read it cover to cover and YES it does deserve all 5 stars. The first half of the book provides a simple framework for requirements gathering and modeling a data warehouse with business users. The book really gets technically interesting in the second half when the author explains each dimension type in detail with it's typical business intelligence problems and gives detailed design pattern solutions for modelling them. I really liked the techniques on optimizing large FACT tables. It is very well written, and also provides hints on actual SQL for building and using the dimensional models. I find it very close to actual business scenarios rather than a high-level strategy book about data warehousing. It is always on my desk and I keep referring to it at my work place. The only suggestion I can give the author is to provide an e-book version soon for quick anytime access. Money well spent!!

When it comes to dimensional modeling and related data warehouse and business intelligence (DW/BI) topics, until now the "Big Two" authors who provide truly useful books are Ralph Kimball (along with his Kimball Group colleagues) and Christopher Adamson. With the publication of Agile Data Warehouse Design: Collaborative Dimensional Modeling, from Whiteboard to Star Schema (ADWD), Lawrence Corr (along with his co-author Jim Stagnitto) contributes critical new information and techniques to the field - and we now have the "Big Three" dimensional design authors. Why are these my "Big Three" BI/DW authors, and why does Lawrence Corr deserve to join the list? The numerous Kimball Group books and the three Adamson books all provide a useful blend of theoretical and practical information and techniques to guide the DW/BI professional in creating systems that are affordable, maintainable, accurate, and useful to clients. In his new book, Corr fills in a critical missing component: how to effectively engage business and technical personnel in a dialogue to perform agile design where the emphasis is on content, understandability, rigor, and usefulness, instead of on producing reams of documentation. In short, this book is about agile dimensional design including "why" and the all-important "how to" with supporting templates. Though many of the book's topics are previously addressed by other authors, Corr expands upon these and presents a large set of fresh ideas and techniques that are robust and adaptable, while incorporating the concepts of the Agile Manifesto. He provides an emphasis on collaboration and flexibility, not just on theoretic agility, while adapting a method called BEAM* (Business Event Analysis & Modeling) for dimensional design. BEAM* is an agile modeling method that lends itself to rapid, collaborative dimensional design sessions with business and technical participants. BEAM* utilizes a set of diagram types that, taken together, provide a complete design that is understandable by business people and is immediately useful for implementation people. The diagram types are: 1. Example Data Table (or BEAM* Table) - Primary diagram type used to capture data stories and describe data requirements through sample data. Supports modeling by example rather than by abstraction, making them useful to all participants in the design activities. Uses sets of short codes to capture and indicate design details. 2. Hierarchy Chart - Shows hierarchical relationships among related entities within a dimension. This is a much cleaner and more concise version of the traditional dimensional hierarchy chart. 3. Timeline - Concisely captures sequences and durations as an aid to understanding and design. 4. Event Matrix - A fresh twist on the classic fact/dimension matrix, with better organization, which provides an accessible overview of multiple star data mart and data warehouse designs. 5. Enhanced Star Schema - Traditional star schema diagrams augmented with BEAM* codes to indicate dimensional design aspects that are not supported by traditional modeling tools. These "tools" facilitate design discussions, detailed design work, communication, implementation, and provide concise yet through documentation. In addition to the methodology and diagram types, extensive coverage of the design process and the designs themselves are covered. All of the dimensional modeling basics receive thorough treatment and many of the more challenging dimensional modeling problems receive substantial coverage with mature techniques and solutions drawn from Corr and Stagnitto's extensive consulting work. Examples include several types of hierarchies and hierarchy maps, multiple calendars, time (clock time), and the always exciting Customer and Employee dimensions, among many other design challenges. Agile Data Warehouse Design is an eminently useful book and a long-needed complement to the dimensional modeling literature.

As system architect in DW/BI environnements, I would say this guide offers a very structured methodology to requirements gathering in DW/BI context and dimensional modeling. I strongly recommend this guide to all BI stakeholders who are looking for a pragmatic approach to dimensional modeling and useful modeling tools ! Excellent and perfect guide in terms of both content and form ! Thank you to authors

Dry, it's a very dry book. If you're after excitement ... you won't be finding it here.

This book is a must for all Business Intelligence professionals which want use collaborative modeling on your projects.

Meet my expectations