My first Publication Agile-Data-Warehouse-Design-eBook | Page 122

Modeling Business Processes
101
Figure 4-4
Data warehouse
bus design pattern
The most useful tool for planning conformance and designing a data warehouse
bus is a dimensional matrix. This is a grid of rows representing business processes
and columns representing dimensions with tick marks at the intersections where a
dimension is a candidate detail of a process. Figure 4-5 shows an example dimen-
sional matrix for Pomegranate’s manufacturing process. The simplicity of this
diagram belies the power of the single page overview it provides (even for a com-
plex real-world design as opposed to this text book example). The clarity of this
model, in a format readily understood by stakeholders and IT alike, compared to
individual tables or data warehouse level ER diagrams, can be truly inspiring! Start
scanning the matrix and see.
A dimensional
matrix is the ideal
conformance
planning tool for
designing a data
warehouse bus
Figure 4-5
A dimensional
matrix