ETL standard processes modelling: a novel BPMN approach

Abstract

ETL systems modelling have been a topic quite explored by researchers in Data Warehousing. However, we believe that there isn’t yet a convinced and simply approach that provides the necessary bridges to validate conceptual and logical models and testing them before its real implementation. In this work we explore the use of BPMN for ETL conceptual modelling, presenting an extension to the BPMN 2.0 meta-model and notation to support modelling and visualization of ETL activities. We intend to provide a set of BPMN meta-models especially designed to map standard ETL processes, providing the necessary bridges to translate conceptual models into their correspondent implementation testing correctness and effectiveness of its execution. For this particular work, we specially designed a standard ETL process – Change Data Capture based on log files – to demonstrate the viability and effectiveness of the approach presented.