Multidimensional Modeling Driven From a Domain Language

Purpose The multidimensional model is based on the concepts of facts (business phenomena to be analyzed), dimensions (coordinates for analyzing a fact), hierarchies (descriptions of each dimension at progressively coarser levels of aggregation), and measures (numerical attributes that quantify a fact), and it is commonly adopted for representing data to support the decision-making process. Though multidimensional modeling has been widely investigated, requirements elicitation is still an open issue mainly due to the poor knowledge end-users have of the multidimensional model on the one hand, to the lack of a domain language shared with designers on the other. In the direction of bridging this gap, this paper proposes an approach to obtain a multidimensional schema from the language of the domain captured through a Language Extended Lexicon (LEL). LELs have been introduced as structured glossaries to describe the language used in the application domain, aimed at facilitating requirements elicitation in software engineering. Our approach consists of two steps. In the first one, end-users apply a set of derivation rules to the LEL in order to obtain draft multidimensional schemata. The second step relies on the interaction of end-users and designers to review and edit these draft multidi- mensional schemata so as to obtain the final ones. The approach is validated via an experiment made on a case study, showing that end-users who apply our rules tend to produce multidimensional schemata that are more correct than those produced by end-users who work freely. Our rules provide a structured context where subjectivity has a smaller impact than in the case of designing with no guidelines, thus effectively supporting the collaboration between end-users and designers.