# Ralph Kimball *Source: [Ralph Kimball - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Kimball)* **Ralph Kimball** (born 1944) is an author on the subject of [data warehousing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_warehousing "Data warehousing") and [business intelligence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_intelligence "Business intelligence"). He is one of the original architects of [data warehousing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_warehousing "Data warehousing") and is known for long-term convictions that data warehouses must be designed to be understandable and fast. His methodology, also known as [dimensional modeling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimensional_modeling "Dimensional modeling") or the Kimball methodology, has become the de facto standard in the area of [decision support](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_support "Decision support"). ## Approach to Building a Data Warehouse **Kimball’s approach** – creating data marts first and then developing a data warehouse database incrementally from independent data marts.  ### Comparison with Inmon  ## External Links - [Kimball Group](http://www.kimballgroup.com/) - [Differences of Opinion: The Kimball bus architecture and the Corporate Information Factory](http://www.kimballgroup.com/2004/03/differences-of-opinion/) [[Bill Inmon]] *** ## Appendix: Links - [[Data Science]] - [[Development]] - [[Data Engineering]] - [[Data Warehouse]] - [[Dimensional Modeling]] - [[ETL Data Warehousing Best Practices]] - [[Databases]] - [[The Kimball Lifecycle]]