Hierarchical Denormalizing: A Possibility to Optimize the Data Warehouse Design

Two of the most common processes in database design community include data normalization and de-normalization which play pivotal roles in the underlying performance. Today data warehouse queries comprise a group of aggregations and joining operations. As a result, normalization process does not seem to be an adequate option since several relations must combine to provide answers for queries that involve aggregation. Further, de-normalization process engages a wealth of administrative tasks, which include the documentation structure of the de-normalization assessments, data validation and data migration schedule, among others. It is the objective of the present paper to investigate the possibility that, under certain circumstances, the above-mentioned justifications cannot provide justifiable reasons to ignore the effects of de-normalization.