Dimensional modeling
In the early 2000s, Ralph Kimball and Margy Ross published the groundbreaking book, The Data Warehouse Toolkit, which has persisted for decades as the authoritative blueprint for constructing database designs. Many of the terms, concepts, and techniques described in later chapters of this book trace their origins to The Data Warehouse Toolkit—whose latest edition fittingly carries the subtitle, The definitive guide to dimensional modeling.
To be clear, Kimball’s approach is not the only way to go about creating a conceptual model. The Agile-based Business Event Analysis and Modeling (BEAM) method (see the Further reading section at the end of this chapter) and other techniques are also worth exploring. However, Kimball’s methodology is widely used and universally recognized and will serve as a springboard for our modeling journey.
Understanding dimensional modeling
DM is a longstanding technique for making databases simple by aligning...
