Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence Flashcards

What is 'conformed dimensions' in data warehousing?

Answer: Dimensions that have identical definitions and content, shared across multiple fact tables or data marts

Conformed dimensions share identical definitions, keys, and hierarchies across multiple fact tables or data marts, enabling consistent cross-subject-area analysis.

What is the purpose of a staging area in a data warehouse ETL process?

Answer: To temporarily hold extracted source data before transformation and loading into the warehouse

The staging area is a temporary storage zone where raw extracted data is held and processed before being transformed and loaded into the permanent data warehouse tables.

Which BI concept refers to the ability to analyze data from multiple perspectives simultaneously?

Answer: Pivot / Cross-tab Analysis

Pivot or cross-tabulation analysis allows users to analyze data from multiple dimensions simultaneously, rotating the view to see measures from different perspectives.

What is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) in business intelligence?

Answer: A measurable value that demonstrates how effectively an organization is achieving key business objectives

KPIs are quantifiable measurements that evaluate the success of an organization in meeting its strategic objectives, such as revenue growth or customer satisfaction scores.

What is 'slowly changing dimension Type 1' (SCD Type 1)?

Answer: Overwriting the old attribute value with the new value, losing historical data

SCD Type 1 simply overwrites the old attribute value with the new value, keeping only the current state and losing the history of previous values.

What does ROLAP stand for in OLAP technology?

Answer: Relational OLAP — storing OLAP data in relational database tables rather than multidimensional cubes

ROLAP (Relational OLAP) generates analytical queries dynamically against relational database tables rather than pre-computing and storing results in multidimensional cubes.