The information in this book will appeal to a specific, albeit narrow, audience: designers of large relational databases and data warehouses. These are some of the ground troops in the software engineering battles. Any organization that uses large databases has encountered the problems caused by poorly designed systems: sluggish response, anomalous information, and inconsistent models. These problems can reduce both staff morale and customer loyalty.

This book contains 13 chapters, on subjects ranging from “Products,” “Ordering Products,” and “Order Delivery and Invoicing” to “Creating the Data Warehouse” and “Star Schema Designs for Human Resources Analysis.” Four appendices give attributes and table structures for all of the models and schemas detailed in the book.

Much of the utility of this book will be lost without the associated CD-ROM, which does not come with the book, but must be purchased separately. The book’s strength is as a template for practitioners to copy. The authors do not attempt to convey the theory behind the approach. Practitioners on the front lines will find this book useful.