Data Warehousing Terminology

There are many terms used in the fields of data warehousing and business intelligence. A few key terms are important to know and understand to get started.

Data Warehousing / Business Intelligence is one of the fastest growing Information Technology (IT) fields in the workplace today. Business' need more information analysis than ever before. In a world faced with economic downturns in every corner of every business area, the ability to move agilely to meet market needs has become paramount. One of the first steps to getting started is to learn the lingo.

There is terminology with specific meaning in this business area that should first be defined and understood. A dimension is "how" the data is viewed. For example, a sales representative may want to view orders by customer, by geographic region, by market type, or even by date. Each of those views would be called a dimensional view of the data. A fact is "what" is viewed. An example of fact data is the relevant order information. This would include the item ordered, the quantity, and the price.

ETL is an acronym used specifically in data warehousing. It is the process to Extract, Transform, and Load the data into the common database from which the information is garnered. This acronym, by definition, is mostly intuitive. The data needed is extracted from the source system, it is then transformed to meet the business reporting requirements, and delivered or "loaded" to the common database.

Business Intelligence is utilizing the data in a way that business' can make rapid informed decisions. There are many ways the information can be delivered to the appropriate business community. The most commonly requested is a dashboard. A dashboard is a visual representation of the data, often in the form of charts, colored metrics, or tables.

The most commonly associated business intelligence delivery is an OLAP cube. OLAP or Online Analytical Processing is a method of providing multi-dimensional query capability to the business community. This type of delivery allows the business community to "slice" and "dice" the information to multiple levels of granularity depending on the specific question for which the answer is needed.

Additionally, individual business questions can be answered with a paper report, a spreadsheet, or even briefing books. The business need may be an exception report that tells only that a specific customer has exceeded their credit limit. It may be a briefing book that drafts the financial reports for the quarter. It may be a simple spreadsheet that is used as the basis for a report that requires human input, for example a sales forecast where the basis is the sales totals for last month by commodity code, and the sales representative must enter the value that will represent the next month's sales forecast.

While not encompassing, these terms should be enough to get the beginner started down the path to understanding this new and exciting technology called data warehousing and business intelligence.

Copyright Eva Jane Secrist. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.