The aim of the chapter is to propose a comprehensive set
of solutions for conceptual modeling according to the DFM and to give a practical
guide for applying them in the context of a design methodology. Besides the basic
concepts of multidimensional modeling, namely facts, dimensions, measures, and
hierarchies, the other issues discussed are descriptive and cross-dimension attributes;
convergences; shared, incomplete, recursive, and dynamic hierarchies; multiple and
optional arcs; and additivity.
After reviewing the related literature in the next section, in the third and fourth
sections, we introduce the constructs of DFM for basic and advanced modeling, respectively.
Then, in the fifth section we briefly discuss the different methodological
approaches to conceptual design. Finally, in the sixth section we outline the open
issues in conceptual modeling, and in the last section we draw the conclusions.
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Related. Literature
In the context of data warehousing, the literature proposed several approaches to
multidimensional modeling. Some of them have no graphical support and are aimed
at establishing a formal foundation for representing cubes and hierarchies as well
as an algebra for querying them (Agrawal, Gupta, & Sarawagi, 1995; Cabibbo &
Torlone, 1998; Datta & Thomas, 1997; Franconi & Kamble, 2004a; Gyssens &
Lakshmanan, 1997; Li & Wang, 1996; Pedersen & Jensen, 1999; Vassiliadis, 1998);
since we believe that a distinguishing feature of conceptual models is that of providing
a graphical support to be easily understood by both designers and users when
discussing and validating requirements, we will not discuss them.
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