A pet peeve of mine is not when companies or HR departments refer to people as resources, but when we in IT do so. I'll be in planning meetings...

I also use dim_ and fact_ prefixes/suffixes on tables as a practice, whichever my client prefers based on their naming standards.

I have seen schemas used only once in a data...

Steve I remember Kevin Cox from MS mentioning at a user group meeting last year that Major League Baseball was a already SQL Server user. I believe he talked...

From a conceptual design point of view, an accumulating snapshot fact table would be the way to go. However there are many pitfalls.

--Accumulating snapshots are best used...

It seems to me that you have a fundamental disagreement between your requirements and your design. Based on what you are measuring it seems the fact should be an...

An accumulating snapshot fact table would still have only one fact per order if the grain of the fact table is a single order. An accumulating snapshot would allow...

A way to get the to the detail level of a cube is to have a dimension in that cube that has a 1-1 relationship with the fact data. ...

I agree with Ron regarding the accumulating snapshot fact table. It is the correct way to go about designing this fact table. Don't be afraid to update fact...

Excellent point. If you lie and don't get hired, shame on you. If you lie...

Steve Jones - Editor (7/2/2010)

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A few of you have noted that an intelligent interview is needed. I think that is part of the problem. I used the word "test", but...

A financial services company I did some work for had an application that created most of its important tables on the fly. The app generated DDL when it needed...

Steve Jones - Editor (2/24/2010)

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I hope that Google isn't implying they are removing data and then keeping it. My guess is they remove the references from my account, but they...

I don't use hungarian notation in databases. I prefer clear, consistent and unabbreviated names such as CUSTOMER_LOCATION instead of tblCustLoc. If I have to distinguish between a view...

The location is not that important to me, and talking to MS people is nice, but not the compelling reason to go. For me, strong sessions that are well...

The key to being successful in management is to make the job your own...just the right mix of technology, people and politics to keep you happy. Of course, this...