Oracle® DBA Guide to Data Warehousing and Star Schemas

The Nature of the Beast

So just how do you decide if you're working on a true data warehouse? First, examine the intended nature of your database and the application it supports. For each subject area in your data warehouse, simply ask your sponsoring business user to provide the following eight items:

• Mission statement

• Number of ad-hoc query users

• Number ad-hoc queries per day per ad-hoc user

• Number of pre-canned report users

• Number of pre-canned reports per day per pre-canned user

• Number of pre-canned reports

• Amount of history to keep in months, quarters, or years

• Typical daily, weekly, or monthly volume of data to record

These answers should help you categorize your database application into one of the following choices:

• Online transaction processing ...