lumihiutalemenetelmä

The lumihiutalemenetelmä, or snowflake method, is a technique used in the development of business intelligence and data warehousing. It is a methodology for designing and building data warehouses in a structured and scalable manner. The core idea behind the lumihiutalemenetelmä is to create a set of independent, but interconnected, data marts. These data marts are designed to serve specific business functions or departments, such as sales, marketing, or finance.

This approach allows for incremental development. Teams can focus on building and delivering value for a particular business area without needing to have the entire enterprise data warehouse fully defined from the outset. Once a data mart is built, it can be integrated into a larger enterprise data warehouse structure. The "snowflake" aspect refers to how these data marts can be further normalized, creating a star schema that branches out into more detailed dimension tables, resembling the facets of a snowflake. This normalization helps to reduce data redundancy and improve data integrity.

The lumihiutalemenetelmä emphasizes a top-down design process, starting with business requirements and then drilling down to the required data structures. It aims to provide flexibility and agility in data warehouse development, enabling organizations to adapt to changing business needs more effectively. By breaking down a complex data warehouse project into smaller, manageable components, it facilitates easier maintenance, testing, and deployment.