Expert to discuss BI modelling

Johannesburg, 18 May 2009

Ralph Kimball, independent consultant at the Kimball Group, will be in SA courtesy of Sybase to present the group's Dimensional Modelling in Depth master classes from 9 to 12 June.

Kimball, an expert on data warehousing, along with Kimball University CEO Margy Ross, will present classes to South African professionals in the data management space at Emperor's Palace Convention Centre in Johannesburg. They will speak on what dimensional modelling is and how it can increase the efficiency of data management with high-performance access, with the end-user in mind.

“The master classes are based on numerous case studies from various industries connecting in various ways. It is not so much teaching implementations, but using examples to explain the utilisation of dimensional modelling as an intuitive framework based on standard approaches to handling modelling situations,” says Kimball.

According to Kimball, the classes will focus on understanding the basic ordering of data into 'facts' and 'dimensions', slowly changing dimensions and conformed dimensions.

“We will also look at the themes of integration and tying data from various silos of the business together, incorporating more operational data and the importance of data quality,” he adds.

Kimball believes dimensional modelling is a much more intuitive approach to data warehousing and data management than entity-relation modelling. Dimensional modelling, he notes, is designed more for handling end-user data queries in a data warehouse, whereas entity-relation modelling is more focused on modelling data elements.

He also says a single view of systems is extremely important for better management, especially when managing various data sources. “Conformed dimensions is the basis of tying together the various incompatible data sources for a single view. We teach the incremental, adaptable way to recognise incompatible descriptions.

“When data warehousing changed its name to business intelligence, the focus changed to a business angle and now end-users are driving the adoption of a more adaptive approach to data management. Our master classes aim to assist in clearing up this approach,” Kimball concludes.