DW Concepts and architecture

[maximus]

Hi

I would like to know whether there is any repository having questions on general Datwarehousing concepts and architecture :?: ...I feel that if there is one...then becoming familiar with the DW concepts and taking a test wud let me know how well i have done my homework...i mean understanding...Since i am pretty new to the DW arena and the industry as such it will be of great help if someone could show me the way.

Regards
Max

[ogmios]

The best place to start with (general) datawarehousing in my opinion is still Kimball's "Data Warehouse Toolkit (second edition)".

By the way, answering a few questions correctly is not going to proof much. The fundamentals of DW are in Kimball's book but for the rest every data warehouse project is unique. And sometimes you have to break some rules to make your project "work".

Ogmios

[ray.wurlod]

To find out how to do it with DataStage, enrol in the Ascential classes. DataStage Essentials is a prerequisite, but the DataStage Best Practices class is the one you really want. Visit the Ascential web site, track down these class names to view what they cover.

[rdy]

Ascential also teaches a class called Iterations (IT400), which is their methodology for developing a DW. They show you what parts of a project that their tools like DataStage or AuditStage plug into a DW project.

It is a good primer for a DW project, although their techniques differ from Kimball's.

[ray.wurlod]

Good catch. The ITERATIONS methodology came on board when VMark and UniData merged to become Ardent; UniData had acquired it along with PWE. I understand that Bill Inmon had a hand in developing the ITERATIONS methodology.
ITERATIONS is a project management plan for the entire DW project, not just the ETL portion; the first two steps are about determining whether the organization is even ready to take on a DW.