Applying MDA to the development of data warehouses

Abstract

Different modeling approaches have been proposed to overcome every design pitfall of the development of the different parts of a data warehouse (DW) system. However, they are all partial solutions which deal with isolated aspects of the DW and do not provide designers with an integrated and standard method for designing the whole DW (ETL processes, data sources, DW repository and so on). On the other hand, the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) is a standard framework for software development that addresses the complete life cycle of designing, deploying, integrating, and managing applications by using models in software development. In this paper, we describe how to align the whole DW development process to MDA. Then, we define MD 2 A (MultiDimensional Model Driven Architecture), an approach for applying the MDA framework to one of the stages of the DW development: multidimensional (MD) modeling. First, we describe how to build the different MDA artifacts (i.e. models) by using extensions of the Unified Modeling Language (UML). Secondly, transformations between models are clearly and formally established by using the Query/View/Transformation (QVT) approach. Finally, an example is provided to better show how to apply MDA and its transformations to the MD modeling.

Ontology-Driven Conceptual Design of ETL Processes Using Graph Transformations

“…Ontologies have been used also for data cleaning purposes, e.g., in [28], and in web data extraction [29]. Another similar line of research concerns the application of Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) to the automatic generation of logical schemata from conceptual schemata for the data warehouse development; e.g., [30].…”

A case study on model driven data integration for data centric software development

“…In [6], MD2A (Multi Dimensional Model Driven Architecture) is suggested as an approach for applying the MDA framework to one of the stages of the DW development: multidimensional (MD) modeling. The authors defined MD PIM, MD PSM and necessary transformations.…”

“…In applying the model transformation framework of Model Driven Architecture (MDA) [2] it provides an integrated development method as well as support for system evolution, integration, interoperability, portability, adaptability and reusability [6].…”

“…This also applies for the process based data integration [7] and conceptual data integration framework, which [6] are proposed in a similar manner. However, some of these works do not properly address how to compromise industrial standards in their approaches, failing to show adaptation of their model into real system.…”

A UML Profile for Representing Business Object States in a Data Warehouse

“…In [12], Mazon et al show how the MDA can be applied to Data Warehousing. Our contribution widens the scope of conceptual modelling in Data Warehousing to include more than structural models.…”