Evaluating the Pros and Cons of Each Alternative

Occasionally, there is a single, clear-cut choice for where to put the intelligence. The DBA is too busy to add it to the physical data warehouse, so you add it to the universe; the calculation is too complex for SQL, so you create a report variable. These are the easy answers. The not-so-easy answers are everything else in between.

The best place for intelligence is, as suggested by the consultant’s annoying but valid answer, “it depends.” The following sections present the pros and cons of each alternative, with examples of intelligence that are better suited to one place than another.

Each alternative has associated costs in terms of time, resources, expenses, and flexibility. The question you ...

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