Measures for ETL processes models in data warehouses

Abstract

processes take charge of extracting the data from data sources that would be contained in the data warehouse. Due to their relevance, the quality of these processes should be formally assessed since the early stages of development, in order to avoid making bad decisions as a result of incorrect data. In this paper, a set of measures to evaluate the structural complexity of ETL process models at conceptual level is presented. Moreover, this study is accompanied by four experiments whose aim is the empirical validation of the proposed measures. The main advantage of this approach is the early evaluation of ETL process models. This early evaluation support designers in their maintenance tasks. This proposal is based on UML (Unifield Modeling Language) activity diagrams for modeling ETL processes and the adoption of the FMESP (Framework for the Modeling and Evaluation of Software Processes) framework.