Publications

Published in 2009, The Multidimensional Data Modeling Toolkit: Making Your Business Intelligence Applications Smart with Oracle OLAP offers an in-depth examination of the analytical possibilities of the multidimensional data analysis platform through the lens of the Oracle OLAP programming language. Starting with the basic distinctions of categorical and quantitative data, this book presents the foundational principles of the OLAP data framework including an in-depth investigation of the capabilities of dimensions as information organizers.

Next, multidimensional data variables or "data cubes" are presented as a way to store application data denominated by key business drivers. The classic use of OLAP as a fast mechanism for reporting on aggregated dimensional data is illustrated through simple sales application; on-the-fly calculations using formulas are shown as a simple way to extend the basic functionality.

Using Oracle's "Analytic Workspace" as an information foundry via the powerful OLAP programming language, numerous variations on the basic approaches are shown to yield more sophisticated metrics such as dimension profilers, counting measures, a dimensional customer migration model, and time series transformations. The final section of the book pulls together the core modeling principles and gives a comparison of OLAP dimensional analysis with statistics and data mining.

Although directed towards the Oracle developer, the book is written in an easy-to-follow, tutorial fashion with many examples that anyone with a curiosity about OLAP analysis should find illuminating. The book is available on Amazon.