Abstract
A data warehouse is a database focused on decision making. Decision makers typically access data warehouses through OLAP tools, based on a multidimensional representation of data. In the past, the key issue of data warehouse quality has often been centered on data quality. However, since OLAP tool users directly access multidimensional schemas, multidimensional schema quality evaluation is also crucial. This paper focuses on the quality of multidimensional schemas, more specifically on the analyzability and simplicity criteria. We present the underlying multidimensional model and address the problem of measuring and finding the right balance between analyzability and simplicity of multidimensional schemas. Analyzability and simplicity are assessed using quality metrics which are described and illustrated based on a case study. The main objective of our approach is to provide the data warehouse designer with precise measures to support him in the choice among several alternative multidimensional schemas.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Chen, P.P.: The entity-relationship model – toward a unified view of data. ACM TODS 1(1) (March 1976)
Blaschka, M., Sapia, C., Höfling, G., Dinter, B.: Finding your way through multidimensional data models. In: DEXA Workshop on Data Warehouse Design and OLAP Technology (DWDOT 1998), Vienna, Austria (1998)
Vassiliadis, P., Sellis, T.: A survey of logical models for OLAP databases. SIGMOD Record 28(4) (December 1999)
Akoka, J., Comyn-Wattiau, I., Prat, N.: Dimension hierarchies design from UML generalizations and aggregations. In: Kunii, H.S., Jajodia, S., Sølvberg, A. (eds.) ER 2001. LNCS, vol. 2224, p. 442. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)
Prat, N., Akoka, J., Wattiau, I.: A data warehouse design method based on UML (to be submitted for publication)
Si-Saïd, S., Akoka, J., Comyn-Wattiau, I.: Conceptual Modeling Quality – From EER to UML Schemas Evaluation. In: Spaccapietra, S., March, S.T., Kambayashi, Y. (eds.) ER 2002. LNCS, vol. 2503, p. 414. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)
Si-Saïd, S., Akoka, J., Comyn-Wattiau, I.: Measuring UML Conceptual Modeling Quality – Method and Implementation. In: Pucheral, P. (ed.) Proceedings of the BDA Conference on Collection INT, France (2002)
Hufford, D.: Data warehouse quality: special feature from January 1996. DM Review (January 1996)
Ballou, D.P., Tayi, G.K.: Enhancing data quality in data warehouse environments. Communications of the ACMÂ 42(1) (January 1999)
Lechtenbörger, J., Vossen, G.: Multidimensional normal forms for data warehouse design. Information Systems 28(5) (2003)
Lehner, W., Albrecht, J., Wedekind, H.: Normal forms for multidimensional databases. In: 10th International Conference on Statistical and Scientific Database Management (SSDBM 1998), Capri, Italy (July 1998)
Levene, M., Loizou, G.: Why is the snowflake schema a good candidate for data warehouse design? Information Systems 28(3) (2003)
Lenz, H.-J., Shoshani, A.: Summarizability in OLAP and statistical data bases. In: 9th International Conference on Statistical and Scientific Database Management (SSDBM 1997), Olympia, Washington, USA ( August 1997)
Calero, C., Piattini, M., Pascual, C., Serrano, M.A.: Towards data warehouse quality metrics. In: 3rd International Workshop on Design and Management of Data Warehouses (DMDW 2001), Interlaken, Switzerland (June 2001)
Jarke, M., Jeusfeld, M., Quix, C., Vassiliadis, P.: Architecture and quality in data warehouses: an extended repository approach. Information Systems 24(3) (1999)
Tsois, A., Karayannidis, N., Sellis, T.: MAC: conceptual data modeling for OLAP. In: 3rd International Workshop on Design and Management of Data Warehouses (DMDW 2001), Interlaken, Switzerland (June 2001)
Lehner, W.: Modeling large scale OLAP scenarios. In: Schek, H.-J., Saltor, F., Ramos, I., Alonso, G. (eds.) EDBT 1998. LNCS, vol. 1377, p. 153. Springer, Heidelberg (1998)
Pedersen, T.B., Jensen, C.S.: Multidimensional data modeling for complex data. In: 15th International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE 1999), Sydney, Australia (March 1999)
Rafanelli, M., Ricci, F.: Proposal of a logical model for statistical databases. In: 2nd International Workshop on Statistical Database Management (SSDBM 1983), Los Altos, California (September 1983)
Batini, C., Ceri, S., Navathe, S.B.: Conceptual database design: An entity relationship approach. Benjamen Cummings, Redwood City (1992)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Cherfi, S.SS., Prat, N. (2003). Multidimensional Schemas Quality: Assessing and Balancing Analyzability and Simplicity. In: Jeusfeld, M.A., Pastor, Ó. (eds) Conceptual Modeling for Novel Application Domains. ER 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2814. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39597-3_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39597-3_14
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-20257-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-39597-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive