The dimensional fact model: a conceptual model for data warehouses

TLDR: This paper formalizes a graphical conceptual model for data warehouses, called Dimensional Fact model, and proposes a semi-automated methodology to build it from the pre-existing schemes describing the enterprise relational database.

Abstract: Data warehousing systems enable enterprise managers to acquire and integrate information from heterogeneous sources and to query very large databases efficiently. Building a data warehouse requires adopting design and implementation techniques completely different from those underlying operational information systems. Though most scientific literature on the design of data warehouses concerns their logical and physical models, an accurate conceptual design is the necessary foundations for building a DW which is well-documented and fully satisfies requirements. In this paper we formalize a graphical conceptual model for data warehouses, called Dimensional Fact model, and propose a semi-automated methodology to build it from the pre-existing (conceptual or logical) schemes describing the enterprise relational database. The representation of reality built using our conceptual model consists of a set of fact schemes whose basic elements are facts, measures, attributes, dimensions and hierarchies; other featur...