Conformed dimensions play a fundamental role in maintaining the consistency of data between several business processes. Conformed dimensions are therefore shared by several star schemas.
Prerequisites

- Star and snowflake schemas

Context

The conformed dimension concept is a solution used to perform analyses concerning several business processes of a company while maintaining the consistency of data.

Source du schéma : Corr, Laurence, and Jim Stagnitto. Agile Data Warehouse Design: Collaborative Dimensional Modeling.

Let’s examine the following queries, for example:

  • Per month and per product, number of orders and returns
  • Per month, for the list of products whose number of returns exceeds 2

If our PRODUCT dimensions contain lists of different products, it will be impossible to consolidate orders with returns. It is therefore very important, when consolidating data from the operational system, to create so-called compliant dimensions in order to ensure the consistency of indicators between the different fact tables.

Definition

Obviously, two dimensions are said to be compliant if they are strictly identical: same names and same values. However, two dimensions can be compliant without being identical:

Reading Conformed dimensions: Star Schema. Christopher Adamson. pages 85-97

Reading Conformed dimensions: Agile Data Warehouse Design: Collaborative Dimensional Modeling, from Whiteboard to Star Schema Laurence Corr, and Jim Stagnitto. pages 97-99, 128