title: Degenerate Dimension in multiple fact tables
body: <p>I am working off an ERD diagram to add a new aspect to our data warehouse. While reviewing the design I noticed a few dimensions that could have their values moved to existing dimensions and the natural keys converted to degenerate dimensions in the fact. After reviewing the document a little further these dimensions exist because the natural keys are required for more then 1 fact table. I have been going back and forth with the designer and he insists they need to be actual dimensions so that the 2 fact tables can use the conformed dimension for reporting/analytics. </p>
  
  <p>The grain of the fact and dimension tables are slightly different. For example, the fact table contains a record for each line (think orderID and OrderLine) and the dimension only has a record for each header (think OrderID). The dimensions tend to have roughly 3/4 of the records that exist in the fact table. The main thing that really bugs me is that our fact and dimensions have the same name "dimXXXX and factXXXX". </p>
  
  <p>For this type of scenario what is best practice? </p>