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ACSAS Department

The UNIVERSITY
of WINNIPEG

91.4904/3

Data Warehousing

January 2004

Instructor Information

Instructor :Ron McFadyenOffice: 3D15

E-mail: ficeHours: see web page

Class Meeting Time: Tuesday, Thursday 10:00 - 11:15Room: 3D03

Important Dates

Midterm Exam/Tests/Quizzes:

first test in the week of Feb 9, 2004 (or possibly the week of Feb 23)

second test in the week of Mar 1, 2004

Final Exam (Comprehensive): April 16, 2004 at 1:30pm

Final Withdrawal Date w/o academic penalty: Friday, March 5, 2004

Course Objectives

The course introduces data warehousing. Specifically it introduces the student to the

  • Architectural framework of a warehouse
  • Basic components of a warehouse
  • Basic processes of a warehouse
  • Dimensional modeling principles
  • Data structures for warehouses

Evaluation Criteria

  • Assignments (20 %)
  • Approximately five assignments (equally weighted)
  • Assignments will be accepted up to one day late with a 25% penalty
  • Assignments may require the use of SQL Server and DTS
  • Non-programming assignment questions must be answered using a word processor or drawing tool
  • Midterm Tests (30 %)
  • Unless a medical certificate is provided, no accommodation is made for missed tests or assignments.
  • Final Exam (50 %)

Exam Requirements

Photo ID is not required

Required Text Book(s)/Reading List

The Data Warehouse Toolkit: The Complete Guide to Dimensional Modeling, 2nd Edition

ISBN 0471200247

by Ralph Kimball, Margy Ross

publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Reference texts on reserve in UW library:

The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit: expert methods …

QA76.9 D37D38 1998

ISBN 0471255475

by Ralph Kimball, Margy Ross, Laura Reeves, Warren Thornthwaite

publisher: John Wiley & Sons

The Data Warehouse Toolkit: practical techniques …

(the 1st edition of the required text, but has a useful CD)

QA 76.9 D26K575 1996

ISBN 0471153370

by Ralph Kimball

publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Prerequisite/Corequisite Information* (This information can be found in the UW General calendar)

A grade of at least C in 91.3902/3

*Make sure that you have the necessary prerequisites to take this course. If you have not successfully completed the above listed courses, it is in your interest to go to student registration office and officially drop the course. Otherwise, the registration office will do it on your behalf.

Misuse of Computer Facilities, Plagiarism, and Cheating

These serious offenses will carry sanctions. Be sure that you have read and understood section 7a starting from page 51 in the 2003-2004 UW Calendar.

Topics to be covered

  • Chapters 1-16 of The Data Warehouse Toolkit, 2nd edition.
  • Chapters 2-15 are oriented towards business areas: retail sales, inventory, etc., and each chapter includes specific dimensional modeling techniques
  • Partial list of dimensional modeling techniques:
  • Fact table types: transaction, periodic snapshot, accumulating snapshot
  • Factless fact tables, core schemas, custom schemas
  • Drilling up/down/across
  • Aggregation strategies
  • Data warehousing lifecycle
  • Data warehouse architecture: matrix, staging, conformed dimensions, …
  • Other topics of interest (if time permits):
  • Index structures
  • Kimball’s design tips (available via
  • Dimensional friendly criteria (available via