Over the past two decades, data webhouses have evolved their own design techniques, distinct from transaction-processing systems. Dimensional design techniques have emerged as the dominant theme for most of our data warehouses. For some years we have had a fairly stable vocabulary that includes slowly changing dimensions, surrogate keys, aggregate navigation, and conformed dimensions and facts. Yet in spite of the growing awareness of this body of practice, we still don’t have good metrics for what makes a system more dimensional or less dimensional. This column and the one in the next issue attempt to fill this gap. I’ll propose 20 criteria for what makes a system dimensional. Besides giving each of the 20 criteria a name, I will try very hard to define the criteria in decisive ways that let you decide whether your system complies.

An architectural model isn't a programming model—and vice versa. Here's how to tell the difference. Software architecture as a distinct discipline is slowly becoming visible. So is the need for blueprints. Most practitioners have emerged from the programming ranks; they usually can envision the overall structure and behavior of a software system. Too often, however, software architects become distracted by nonarchitectural issues, and they retain the typical programmer's disdain for documenting their work. But what is architecture without blueprints?

One reason that IT projects fail is that they are too complex. The more complex and lengthy a project, the higher the risk of failure. It would, therefore, seem that one way to reduce the level of project risk and failure is to reduce the levels of complexity associated with them.

This is a new site dedicated to software testing. It includes discussion forums (like Usenet newsgroups), a monthly "presentation" on a test topic, lists of and links to other resources. The "presentations" area seems to be the most useful resource. The other areas seem pretty typical for this type of site. [Editor's Note: This site is sponsored by Data Kinetics, an IT consultancy.]

This article gives a very nice introduction to white-box testing (testing based on code or implementation knowledge). While the article is oriented to unit (developer) testing, it gives some excellent ideas and approaches to enhance test coverage in general even via black-box testing.

This Guide was written to introduce testing concepts to people who have little or no experience with testing. Typically these people are business users and business analysts familiar with the applications they are being asked to test but not familiar with the testing process.

For the future IT professional, technology skills are a given. Instead, strategic business and interpersonal skills will be increasingly important. These are suggested areas in which you can improve your skill set to become a valued member of not only your team, but your company.

A fully automated OSS streamlines provisioning, which helps providers avoid errors, economize on staffing and time, manage inventory and quickly realize revenues.

In the telecom business, the first step in selecting an operational support system (OSS) is identifying the business processes used to support end-to-end workflows. This requires the involvement of numerous company groups and key stakeholders going through many hours of painstakingly detailed work to document manual and partially automated processes currently used within the business. The next step is matching those requirements with an OSS that will meet both current and future business needs.

NorthPoint Communications is the most recent provider of high-speed digital subscriber lines to encounter problems with its new order management software, which is delaying service installations for some Internet service provider partners.

The Application Service Provider (ASP) market’s potential is causing a lot of commotion. With a projected market size of $23 billion by 2001 (Forrester) or $22.7 billion by 2003 (DataQuest), everyone wants a piece of the action—from carriers to application companies, and OSS vendors to integrators. Carriers want to maximize traffic on their networks, applications providers want to broaden distribution, OSS vendors want to provide provisioning and billing for ASP services, and integrators want to make it all work together.

[Editor's Note: WCG has a business objective to move into the ASP market. A key element of success in this strategy is the IT back-office systems.]

In the wake of the e-business gold rush that has created such an explosion of Internet traffic, traditional telecom carriers are edging further away from their voice roots, attempting to carve out potentially lucrative space in the market for offering data-centric services.

MCI WorldCom, Sprint, and AT&T are each moving to reposition themselves as integrated service and data providers, leveraging their large customer base and established infrastructure to deliver a broad range of services. The RBOCs (Regional Bell Operating Companies) are also moving in the same direction, while battling to establish themselves as national players to boost their credibility in the enterprise marketplace.

Search Thingy is a small front-end to a variety of popular web search engines and directories, including Altavista, Yahoo, Lycos, GoTo, and Northern Light. You simply select the desired search engine and enter your search criteria like you would at the search engine site. Search Thingy launches the web browser and executes the search. A couple of very cool features are Favorites which allow you to save up to 10 search criteria for quick access and History which keeps a log of your searches including which search engine you used.

ScrHots is a screen saver "hot corners" utility. It allows you to configure your system so that your screen saver will immediately be activated when you move your mouse cursor to a particular corner of the screen. Likewise, corners can be set so that placing the mouse cursor in those corners prevents the screen saver from activating. This is useful when you are running a program which cannot be interrupted (such as Defrag) or if you need to monitor a lengthy process.

FreeShade is a free "window shading" utility which allows you to "roll up" any window so that only the title bar is visible. This is useful for temporarily moving a window out of the way so that you can see the window behind it. When FreeShade is enabled (by default it will launch on system startup), double clicking on a window title bar will "roll up" the window. Double clicking on the title bar when the window is rolled up will maximize the window (like the standard double-click function). Additional FreeShade functions, such as Maximize Vertically or Horizontally and Hug a side, are available by clicking on the title bar with the middle mouse button (the wheel on the Intellimouse).

Think that you've seen all of the versions, outtakes, and bloopers from Star Wars? This site presents the original Star Wars (Episode IV for you trivia buffs) including dialog in straight ASCII text as a Java applet. It is truly a creative and unique presentation.