A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) having any arbitrary structure is translated into a multi-dimensional data model suitable for performing OLAP operations upon. If a relational table defining the relational model includes any tables with cardinality of 1,1 or 0,1, the tables are merged into a single table. If the relational table is not normalized, then normalization is performed and a relationship between the original table and the normalized table is created. If the relational table is normalized, but not by dependence between columns, such as in the dimension table in a snowflake schema, the normalization process is performed using the foreign key in order to generate the normalized table. Once the normalized table is generated, OLAP measures are derived from the normalized relational table by an automated method. In addition, OLAP dimensions are derived from the normalized relational table and the results of the OLAP measures derivation by an automated method according to the present invention. According to an aspect, it is possible to associate a member of a dimension to another member of the same or another dimension. According to another aspect, it is possible to create a new dimension of analysis, the members of which are all the different values that a scalar expression can take on. According to yet another aspect, it is possible to access the various instances of a Reporting Object as members in an OLAP dimension. According to the yet another aspect, it is possible to apply opaque filters or a combination of them to the data that underlies analysis.