Naming conventions for fact and dimension table

Hi

I wanted to find out what would be your suggestion for the issue I face.

The business gets applications and puts it on its system and this is a source to both a dimension and a fact table.

I'm thinking about calling the dimension 'Application' but I don't know what to call the fact table as best option to me seems to be 'application' as well which would be confusing to end users (PivotTable users).

Any suggestions?

Take care
Emil

If you are referring to application installs, using my naming conventions I would have
dimApplication
dimSystem
factAppInstall

Applications are installed on Systems.

If this is not what you are referring to in your post, please let me know.

Hi

The generic 'application' word I used; in my case refers to someone applying for something, so each application will move from inquiry stage to next stage eventually being completed or cancelled.

Take care
Emil

If it helps, dimensions generally represent 'things' while facts represent processes or actions. So, Application is fine for the dimension, while you may want to use 'pipeline' or 'application pipeline' for the facts. Talk to someone in HR to get an idea of what they call it.

With that said, I would question the concept of an application dimension. Like an order header, an application is made up of a lot of components that are dimensions in their own right… applicant, position, education and others can be created to reduce the dimension size and eliminate a wide high cardinality dimension table.

Thanks for the "application pipeline" suggestion.

The application dimension is a reference dimension and as you suggested rest is separate dimensions.

The process is new (truly stand alone with fixed lifespan) and two users who are getting used to the concept of facts and dimensions and previously just called it just application data

If you have any other suggestions please let me know I'm going to go through names today and try to establish final version.

Take care
Emil

Hi

The business user tried several names and the end result is:
Dimension is called: Application
Fact Table is called: Application Measures

Similarly we have Applicant and Applicant Measures and Builder and Builder Measures.

One advantage of that is that in Pivot Table in Excel these two "entities" (dim and fact) are next to each other which makes the user search a little bit easier.

Thanks for taking them time and sharing your suggestions with me. It appears naming convenient are not always as simple as we would like to be.

Take care
Emil