Putting Conceptual Modeling into Practice

Conceptual database modeling is a high-level approach to designing a database that focuses on capturing business entities and their relationships. This approach allows designers to develop a deeper understanding of the data, making it easier to identify potential issues or inconsistencies in the design. It can also make the database more flexible and adaptable to future changes and make it easier to understand and use for people who are unfamiliar with it. As a result, conceptual database modeling can help make a database more effective and efficient at supporting the needs of an organization.

In this chapter, we will generate a conceptual model from scratch using Kimball’s dimensional modeling (DM) technique. This approach brings the data team together with business experts to ensure that database designs reflect the reality of business processes from inception, thereby saving costly rework down the line.

However, conceptual models...