SAP BW|BOBJ|Project Management Blog

SAP BW Dimensional Modeling Tutorial

Written by Lonnie D. Ayers, PMP | Tue, Nov, 15, 2011 @ 01:41 PM
Is your SAP datawarehouse suffering from slow performance?  (And which ones aren't!) Have you wondered if there are better ways to model your datawarehouse
 

What is Dimensional Modeling

 
SAP BW Dimensional Modeling is one of the most complex and important tasks facing the SAP BW customer and SAP BW Consultant alike.



 

The dimensions of this problem are well known, yet little understood.  That is why getting SAP BW InfoCube Dimensions modeled correctly is a challenging and complex task. 

Data Warehouse Dimensional Modeling Tutorial

We have prepared a SAP BW Dimensional Modeling Guide to help you with the challenges of SAP BW dimensional modeling process. 

 

In this dimensional modelling tutorial, we cover key aspects of:

  • Compound Keys

  • Aggregates

  • Broad Dimensions

  • Line Item Dimensions

  • Using Demographic Characteristics

  • Categorization During Runtime

  • Time Dependency as a Categorization Characteristic

  • Dealing with Historical Data Changes

  • Dealing with slowly changing dimensions

  • Partitioning to improve performance

  • Degenerated Dimensions

  • And many other subjects

Dimensional Modeling Best Practices

Of course, not all of these data warehouse dimensional modeling tutorial techniques apply to all modeling situations, and your particular use case will dictate which combination of these techniques are required.  That is why we recommend a review of your existing system when you are suffering performance issues.  It is also the only way to fully exploit the SAP Business Content, the key competitive differentiator of SAP Business Warehouse.


 

 

 

This is a follow-on to our first guide, SAP BW Data Modeling, which introduced you to the subject of InfoCube design.  For those of you with some SAP BW Data Modeling background, these may be just a good review. 

However, as we took the original information an enhanced it with real world experience, we think you may still learn something from it. 

 

Comments and Links are ALWAYS welcome

 

Thanks