Multidimensional Modeling

MIS 497
What is multidimensional model?
 Logical view of the enterprise
 Shows main entities of the enterprise
business and relationships between them
 Not tied to a physical database and tables
 Not E-R diagram
 Model Components
 Dimensions (Hierarchies in MSTR 7)
 Attributes
 Facts
 Relationships
 Multidimensional Data Model
Example

Time Geography
Products

Year Country Division

Quarter Region Department

Month City Category

Day Store Store Manager Item

 Attributes

 Attributes are abstract items with

business relevance that are
created for convenient
qualification or summarization of
data on a report.
 Attribute can also be defined as
column headings on a report that
are not a calculation
 Attribute relationships
 One to One
– Each customer has only one SSN.
 One to Many
– Each customer can have several addresses.
 Many to Many
– Each customer can buy many items, an item can be
purchased by many customers (item means SKU, not
the same physical object).
 Many to One
– Several phone numbers can belong to one store, and
one store only.
 Attribute relationships
 Out of all relationships, Many to Many is the trickiest one.
If not modeled carefully, M;N can lead to double-counting
and other unhappy consequences.
 Practical ways of dealing with M;N relationships:
– Create a relationship table
– Create a compound key
» Not advisable, but sometimes necessary
 Hierarchies (Dimensions)
 Hierarchies have the same meaning Time
as Dimensions in MicroStrategy 7.
 Hierarchies are based on Year
relationships between Attributes.
They allow end users to define and Quarter
order groups of Attributes for display
and browsing purposes. Month

Day
 Facts
 Data columns (usually numeric) that can be used to perform
calculations needed to answer business questions.
 Facts are stored in Fact Tables or Base Tables
 Facts can be aggregated on different levels:

Aggregated on Aggregated on
Region level Country level
 Facts (continued)
 Same facts can be represented by different column name in the DW
due to various historical and design reasons.
 In the example below the same fact has two different names: SALES
and DOLLAR_SALES

 Facts are cross-dimensional, not limited to one dimension

only. In the example above, the same fact crosses two
dimensions: Geography and Time.
 Facts (continued)
 Facts are used to create metrics.
 Metrics - business measurements (i.e. Dollar Sales, Units Sold, Gross
Margin and etc.) used by businesses to analyze and report their
performance.
 Metrics are usually a fact that has a mathematical function applied to it
(sum, average, max, min and etc.)
 More on metrics in a separate presentation
 What to read for more information:

 MicroStrategy 7 Project designer guide.

 Have a good look at VMALL Data Model
– Identify attributes, hierarchies and facts – you’ll
need them for the Workshop.