Ch13 Business Intelligence And Data Warehouses Flashcards
Define business intelligence
A comprehensive, cohesive, and integrated set of tools and processes used to capture, collect, integrate, store, and analyze data with the purpose of generating and presenting information used to support business decision making.
Decision support data differs from operational data in what three areas?
TIME SPAN - operational data has a short time span, decision support data has a long time span
DIMENSIONALITY - operational data focuses on few dimensions, decision support data focuses on many dimensions and the relationships between them
GRANULARITY - operational data has a low level of aggregation, decision support data has a high level of aggregation from highly summarized to near atomic.
Data warehouse design and implementation roadmap
Initial data gathering - interview key users
Design and mapping - design star schema
Loading and testing - load data, index data and validate data
Building and testing - build required queries and test interfaces and results
Rollout and feedback - roll out system
What is a star schema?
Data modelling technique that maps multidimensional decision support data into a relational database
A star schema contains what?
Facts
Dimensions
Attributes
Attribute hierarchies
Describe the four parts of a star schema
Facts - numerical measurements that represent business activity
Dimensions - characteristics that provide additional perspectives to facts
Attributes - search, filters, and classifies facts
Attribute hierarchies - a top down data organization that has two purposes: aggregation and data analysis.
What is a data warehouse?
A data warehouse is a dynamic framework for decision support. It is a critical component of the modern BI environment
What is a conformed dimension
A common dimension such as time that connects a star schema
What is data mining
Tools that help analyze data, uncover problems and opportunities, form computer models, and use those models to predict business behaviour.
Data mining’s function is to:
Automate the analysis of operational data
What are Metrics?
Facts computed at run time
