School of Computing and Information Systems

PROGRAMME: BSC BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE & DATA ANALYSIS

BI205 Data Warehousing Year 2 Semester 2

OPEN BOOK ASSESSMENT TEST

Date: 13 April 2022 Time: 08:00 – 12:00

Total Marks: 100 Duration: 4hrs

Instructions to candidates

1. Candidates must answer all FOUR (4) questions

2. Candidates attempting to gain unfair advantage or colluding in any way
whatsoever are liable to be disqualified.
3. Candidates are allowed to bring textbooks, lecture notes, online resources into the
examination environment
4. Download both Examination Question Paper and the Examination Answer Booklet
on to your computer
5. Write your answers in the answer booklet provided with this question paper.
6. Append your signature and ID number at the bottom of your Examination Answer
Booklet as acknowledgement the submitted work as your own.
7. Submit your work in PDF, or Word format
8. Submit the Examination Answer Booklet ONLY as one document on TurniItIn on the
submission bin provided.
9. Should you encounter a challenge please email immediately at the emails below;
Module leader: charlesk@bac.ac.bw and Programme Leader:
matthewsp@bac.ac.bw

This paper consists of SEVEN (7) printed pages including this page

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Question 1

a. Discuss any two (2) differences between the operational/online transactional systems

and data warehousing systems, focusing on the following attributes:

i. Size and content [4 marks]

ii. Performance [2 marks]

iii. Content focus [2 marks]

iv. Tools [2 marks]

b. As the data enters the data warehouse, it is transformed into an integrated structure and

format in the staging area. Explain the different processes that are involved in the data

transformation process, within the staging area [5 marks]

c. The principal purpose of a data warehousing is to provide information to business users

for strategic decision-making. These users interact with the data warehouse using front-end

tools.

Discuss the major groups of front-end tools that users use to manipulate the data

warehouse. [10marks]

[TOTAL 25 Marks]

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Question 2

Distinguish between the following data warehousing concepts.

a) i) Data Warehouse and OLAP tools. [2 marks]

ii) Distinguish between Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) and Online Analytical
Processing. [8 marks]

b. The data in the table below shows the fruit sales per region on a particular date.
Represent the data in the form of a 3-dimensional OLAP cube representation diagram.

[4 marks]

REGION SALES DATE FRUIT

North 839 01/04/15 Apples
West 3222 01/07/15 Lemons
South 276 01/07/15 Apples
South 675 01/07/15 Apples
South 434 01/07/15 Oranges
South 1691 01/07/15 Apples
North 191 01/10/15 Apples
East 6789 01/06/16 Apples
South 127 01/06/16 Lemons
South 367 01/07/16 Lemons
East 98 01/06/17 Lemons
West 690 01/07/17 Oranges
West 49 01/07/17 Oranges
East 211 01/07/17 Oranges
South 601 01/07/17 Apples
North 523 01/10/17 Apples
South 249 01/07/18 Apples
South 561 01/07/18 Lemons

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 East 118 01/07/18 Apples
North 119 01/07/18 Apples
West 431 01/08/18 Apples
South 1233 01/08/18 Lemons

c. Explain the different types of Slowly Changing Dimensions (SCD) in data warehousing.

[6 marks]

d. Figure 1 below shows that a new customer was added into an order entry system of the

data warehouse, with a primary contact on 01/01/2022. This customer’s data was then

changed on 11/03/2022 to reflect a new primary contact of Oratile Sesiane.

CustID ContactID Last_name First Name Time_stamp

1999120601 01 Moeng Thabo 01/01/2022

1999120601 01 Sesiane Oratile 11/03/2022

i. State whether the state of data in this data warehouse extract is legal or illegal.
[2 marks]

ii. Give an explanation for your response in part 2di above. [3 marks]

[TOTAL 25 Marks]

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Question 3

a. i. Define the term Dimensional Modelling [2 marks]

ii. Give 2 examples of dimensions with respect to the School of Computing

and Information Systems (SCIS) of the Botswana Accountancy College. [2 marks]

b. Data modelling structures that are commonly found in a data warehouse environment

are the Star schema and Snowflake schema.

With the aid of diagrams, distinguish between the TWO (2) schemas. [8 marks]

c. Discuss the schemas in b) above with regards to optimization and practical applications

of each schema. [4 marks]

d. The diagram below shows an E-R model taken from Connolly and Begg for the Dream

Home database. Notice that it contains complex relationships between the various objects,

which would make it difficult to answer the types of queries required in a Data Warehouse.

Redesign the E/R Shema using a Star Schema, using attributes of your choice. [9 marks]

[TOTAL 25 Marks]

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Question 4

a. The most challenging aspect of data warehousing lies not in its technical difficulty, but in

choosing the best approach to data warehousing for a company’s structure and culture.

Discuss the three (3) approaches to developing a data warehouse. [9 marks]

b. Discuss the relevant phases of data warehouse design? [8 marks]

c. With the help of illustrations, distinguish between the slicing and dicing data warehouse

operations. [8 marks]

[TOTAL 25 Marks]

------------------------------------------END OF ASSESSMENT TEST---------------------------------------------------

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