The most blog postings from BIBP Copyright BIBP http://www.bi-bestpractices.com/rss/all_blogs.php 144 24 http://www.bi-bestpractices.com/images/logo_beyeblogs.gif http://www.bi-bestpractices.com/rss/all_blogs.php
When I teach, I frequently discuss temporal based data sets - after all, that's a big piece of what data warehousing and BI is about - Data Over Time. But when examining the database engines ability to "retrieve" specific data sets as a snapshot in time, it seems there is a problem. There appears to be no "consistent" manner in which to retrieve these layers for use by the business. We are left to create physical dimensions and physical fact tables - aggregate our data up to higher levels (to shrink the amount of data) so that joins can execute cleanly and efficiently across information. So why then, after all these years haven't vendors properly implemented the ANSI-SQL-92 standard of "PERIOD"? Database Vendors, are you listening? There is a serious revenue gain to be had by implementing these feature sets...

]]> http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/07/true_temporal_b.php?frss=1&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html) Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:22:06 MST http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/07/true_temporal_b.php
Any time we get back to secrets, we seem to fall right back to the category of standards, standardization, measurement and enablement. The old saying is: "if you can't measure it, you can't monitor it, and if you can't monitor it - you don't know when it's broke, or you can't optimize it/fix it." Something like this anyhow. The common feedback from the general project implementation community is usually: "Why do I need to standardize? Why should I document? Won't it take more time to follow standards than to build rapidly?"

]]> http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/07/part_7_secrets.php?frss=1&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html) Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:15:30 MST http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/07/part_7_secrets.php
For a long time Dr Ralph Kimball has spoken about subject oriented design. Many have made a living off of producing subject based data marts. One of the problems this has lead to is a series of loosely coupled stove-piped answer sets that are then "discussed" in the light of an enterprise data warehouse. I've been teaching, talking and writing about (over the last 10 years at least) a notion called Functionally Oriented Design. In this entry I will briefly introduce my notions of these concepts.

]]> http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/06/design_subject.php?frss=1&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html) Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:57:31 MST http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/06/design_subject.php
Operational BI is becoming quite the buzz today. There are countless articles, tips, vendors with operational BI offerings, case studies, etc., available today. Yet, I still get asked the very basic question of how do you get started. What are the first steps? Well, here are my thoughts on how to get started...

]]> http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/imhoff/archives/2008/05/first_steps_in.php?frss=1&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html) Sat, 31 May 2008 15:54:53 MST http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/imhoff/archives/2008/05/first_steps_in.php
My book on the Business of Data Vault Modeling, approach and archtitecture is finally available after 7 years. If you'd like to purchase it, you can grab a copy from LULU.com (here: http://www.lulu.com/content/1371769) If you'd like a signed copy, please contact me directly with all your information. Bill Inmon has kindly written the forward for the book. The Data Vault Model and approach to implementation is the next paradigm shift in accordance with DW2.0

]]> http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/05/the_business_of.php?frss=1&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html) Sun, 25 May 2008 22:01:03 MST http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/05/the_business_of.php
Before we get to Dynamic Data Warehousing, we need to first reach Operational Data Warehousing. Now I realize that I'm not the first, nor will I be the last to use or even possibly abuse this term. In fact if you search on the term today you'll get tons and tons of hits. I do however believe that Data Warehousing and BI as an industry have gotten slow, and become somewhat of a laggard in terms of keeping up with technology. Just look at the adoption curve of DW2.0... It simply isn't there yet (wish it were). Anyhow, in this blog let's take another look at the ODW as Bill Inmon and I are beginning to discuss it.

]]> http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/05/operational_dat_1.php?frss=1&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html) Sun, 4 May 2008 21:30:55 MST http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/05/operational_dat_1.php
I've just completed Bill Inmon's brand new course on Unstructured Data using his new Unstructured Data ETL tool. It's been very eye opening. Every time I meet Bill I'm always learning something new. There was a discussion at the end of the class that asks the question: WHAT do you do if you FIND "structural definition elements" in unstructured data that AREN'T represented in the EDW??

]]> http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/05/unstructured_in.php?frss=1&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html) Fri, 2 May 2008 13:42:43 MST http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/05/unstructured_in.php
It seems people have taken the term "Dynamic Data Warehousing" and abused it. They've made it out to be about "Dynamic Data" and completely ignored "Dynamic Modeling", or dynamic restructuring as the case may be. Automorphic means self-changing, self-adapting. In this entry we'll talk about different capabilities of Dynamic Data Warehousing and the changes to data models as they grow.

]]> http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/04/dynamic_data_mo.php?frss=1&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html) Sat, 26 Apr 2008 07:56:42 MST http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/04/dynamic_data_mo.php
To follow on with our series, we'll dive in now and explore some of the elements needed for a repeatable, consistent, and redundant project. These are components that make the project book completely usable - without these pieces, the project methodology usually sits on a shelf and gathers dust. What we are aiming at is: the hope of reducing overhead costs, reducing errors, increasing productivity, and increasing agility of I.T.

]]> http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/04/part_6_secrets.php?frss=1&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html) Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:35:51 MST http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/04/part_6_secrets.php
If you are struggling to define your company's key performance indicators (KPIs), here is a useful bit of information. I recently discovered an interesting website dedicated to identifying KPIs for just about every category you can think of. And it is FREE!

]]> http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/imhoff/archives/2008/04/free_kpis.php?frss=1&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html) Tue, 1 Apr 2008 14:41:46 MST http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/imhoff/archives/2008/04/free_kpis.php
Do you still think that knowing flash and actionscript is not a newly required skill? Have you seen the latest version of Crystal Reports from BO? It now contains a front-end product that used to be called Excelsius, which is a flash-based front-end BI dashboard library. You can drag and drop buttons, charts, pre-built reports, and other things on to the different scenes in the dashboard. No more flipping pages, and writing PHP code or Java code to exercise BI on the client side. It's a highly protected environment.

]]> http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/03/new_skills_requ_1.php?frss=1&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html) Tue, 18 Mar 2008 05:06:51 MST http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/03/new_skills_requ_1.php
As this series progresses, I've received some wonderful comments, thank-you to all who are replying. In this entry we'll talk about some of the additional skills that are helpful in managing and developing successful projects. We've touched on a few already, but I'm not convinced we gave enough credit to these items. Many people argue with standards, claiming they are over-burdening their development - claiming they can't get their job done with them, claiming they are too verbose or have too many pieces to work effectively. They revert to RAD, JAD, and extreme methodologies...

]]> http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/03/part_5_secrets.php?frss=1&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html) Sun, 16 Mar 2008 06:31:12 MST http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/03/part_5_secrets.php
So you've all seen Flash production movies? You've all heard of Pod-casts? How about web-interactivity without "changing pages"? I'm sure you've seen Flash produced web-sites, or played an animated game lately. This post is about the new skill sets needed by BI vendors, and Business Intelligence Analysts to survive the new upcoming wave. Those of you producing PowerPoints, or sitting in the background coding "BI Reports..." you've got a few things to learn.

]]> http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/03/new_skills_requ.php?frss=1&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html) Sun, 2 Mar 2008 15:55:47 MST http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/03/new_skills_requ.php
Every now and then, I use my blog for something that has nothing to do with BI. Sometimes I use it for humor, sometimes a rant against a pet peeve, and sometimes -- like this time -- for something that I found astonishing.

]]> http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/imhoff/archives/2008/03/excess.php?frss=1&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html) Sun, 2 Mar 2008 10:19:44 MST http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/imhoff/archives/2008/03/excess.php
Bill Inmon and I sat down the other day to discuss a system that we are building. We didn't have a good "name" for it, but what it amounts to is: Operational Data Warehousing. If you can believe it, what we've done is taken the Operational specifics of systems capturing data - and placed it on top of the Data Warehouse as a single integrated historical and operational data store. We are currently using the Data Vault model for this componentry. Some folks have called this "Active Data Warehousing" in the past, but we feel that this is one step beyond, in that it actually IS the operational store at the same time as being the Data Warehouse. Convergence has arrived...

]]> http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/02/the_new_evoluti.php?frss=1&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html) Mon, 25 Feb 2008 08:26:55 MST http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2008/02/the_new_evoluti.php