Product Description

The world of data warehousing has changed remarkably since the first edition of The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit was published in 1998. With this new edition, Ralph Kimball and his colleagues have refined the original set of Lifecycle methods and techniques based on their consulting and training experience. They walk you through the detailed steps of designing, developing, and deploying a data warehousing/business intelligence system. With substantial new and updated content, this second edition again sets the standard in data warehousing for the next decade.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #107907 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 672 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit, authors Ralph Kimball, Laura Reeves, Margy Ross and Warren Thornthwaite present a structure for undertaking the mammoth task of implementing a data warehouse. As part of a rather select group of professionals actually experienced in building data warehouses, the authors attempt to convey their expertise about how to approach the job. The book focuses on the "Star Lifecycle"--a high-level, project-planning approach to evolving existing information systems into an ever-changing data-warehouse solution. --Stephen Plain, Amazon.com

Robert S. Craig, Vice President, Application Architectures, Hurwitz Group, Inc.
A comprehensive, thoughtful, and detailed book that will be of inestimable value to anyone struggling with the complex details of designing, building, and maintaining an enterprise-wide decision support system. Highly recommended.

From the Back Cover
A thorough update to the industry standard for designing, developing, and deploying data warehouse and business intelligence systems

The world of data warehousing has changed remarkably since the first edition of The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit was published in 1998. In that time, the data warehouse industry has reached full maturity and acceptance, hardware and software have made staggering advances, and the techniques promoted in the premiere edition of this book have been adopted by nearly all data warehouse vendors and practitioners. In addition, the term "business intelligence" emerged to reflect the mission of the data warehouse: wrangling the data out of source systems, cleaning it, and delivering it to add value to the business.

Ralph Kimball and his colleagues have refined the original set of Lifecycle methods and techniques based on their consulting and training experience. The authors understand first–hand that a data warehousing/business intelligence (DW/BI) system needs to change as fast as its surrounding organization evolves. To that end, they walk you through the detailed steps of designing, developing, and deploying a DW/BI system. You′ll learn to create adaptable systems that deliver data and analyses to business users so they can make better business decisions.

With substantial new and updated content, this second edition of The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit again sets the standard in data warehousing for the next decade. It shows you how to:

• Identify and prioritize data warehouse opportunities

• Create an architecture plan and select products

• Design a powerful, flexible, dimensional model

• Build a robust ETL system

• Develop BI applications to deliver data to business users

• Deploy and sustain a healthy DW/BI environmentv

The authors are members of the Kimball Group. Each has focused on data warehousing and business intelligence consulting and education for more than 15 years; most have written other books in the Toolkit series. Learn more about the Kimball Group and Kimball University at www.kimballgroup.com.

Customer Reviews

The best book on data warehousing
I have had this book for a while now, dipping in to useful parts now and again without having had the time to read it from cover to cover.
However, recently I have been able to read it from start to finish and I wish I had done so sooner.

The book covers the 'how to' of data warehousing, but the thing that makes the book excellent is that it places this information in the context of the lifecycle of typical data warehouse projects.

The book is long... very long. But everyone on data warehousing projects should read this book, if only to encourage a common mindset. The examples and templates are also very useful.

Good, but too management-like, not technical enough
This is quite a good book but it is too management-like for me.
It covers the whole data-warehouse process including business requirement gathering and project management.
If you want a more technically orrientated book that covers the all important modelling aspects, Kimballs other book "The data warehoue toolkit - the complete guide to dimensional modelling" is much much better.
I can't help thinking that Kimball et al wrote this book after that modelling one in an attempt to cash in on the sucess of the modelling book.
In summary, if you're a technician buy the modelling book - if you're a manager who wants an overview, buy this one.

The must have book for anybody involved in data warehousing
If you don't have this book, and you are involved in any way with a data warehouse project, buy it now and read it from cover to cover.

This is the best book on data warehousing ever written.

The book contains everything you need to know to build a data warehouse, from project management thru to support and implementation.