In my data mart design consulting, I insist that my IS clients identify a minimum of 50 text-like attributes for such important dimensions as customer and product. Even inherently small dimensions such as Transaction Type should be graced with good text descriptions of what each transaction type means. Chances are these transactions can also be arranged in groups. The Transaction Group should be another text attribute. All of the text attributes should consist of real words.
Cryptic abbreviations are extremely undesirable.
Remember that these text attributes are both the user interface to the application and the permanent row and column headers in printed reports. IS shops must do a very professional job of quality assurance on the dimension table attributes. Choosing the Duration of the Database. The duration measures how far back in time the fact table goes. In many businesses, there is a natural need to look at the same time period a year ago.