Pre-Aggregated Data and Changing Dimensions
Normally when working with data we assume that we have it on the lowest possible grain and we are challenged by the need to aggregate it along various hierarchies. By the nature of BI, we get to work with large sets of detailed data collected by an existing system.
But what happens when we are given the aggregations and we need to work with these instead? Recently Nick Barclay and I were involved in such an implementation. Nick designed a Health and Safety Dashboard and after that I built it with Reporting Services, PerformancePoint, Analysis Services and SQL Server 2005 relational databases.
Tags: design, aggregation