It offers them a better
understanding of challenges, possible solutions, and advanced applications of these
technologies. Moreover, technical aspects covered in the book will suit the contents
of many DW courses offered at universities both in Europe and in the U.S. For this
reason, the book can be a useful resource for students as well.
Structure. of. the.Book
The body of the book consists of 13 chapters divided into four sections. Each of the
sections addresses a particular research and technological area, namely:
??? Modeling and designing,
??? Loading and refreshing,
??? Efficiency of analytical processing, and
??? Advanced technologies and applications.
Section I addresses issues concerning one of the initial steps in the whole life cycle
of a data warehouse, namely, requirements analysis, conceptual modeling, and
designing. This section consists of three chapters.
Chapter I, Conceptual Modeling Solutions for the Data Warehouse, by Stefano
Rizzi, focuses on a conceptual modeling that provides abstract representations of
warehousing process, data structures, and architectures. The aim of conceptual
modeling is to assure that a model is independent of an implementation. The author
concentrates on a conceptual graphical model called the dimensional fact model
(DFM) that was developed to support multidimensional modeling. The representation
of the reality constructed using the DFM consists of the set of fact schemata.
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