Facts – Numerical information that can be analyzed by BI applications. E.g. total quantity sold, total sales dollars

Dimensions – Qualifiers of Facts. E.g. Transaction date, Customer name, Sales territory

Star schema - Method of organizing facts and dimensions for BI purposes. Star schemas can be deployed into Relational databases (in our case SQL Server) and into proprietary Cubes . Examples of the latter are Microsoft’s Analysis Services cubes or Cognos’ cubes.

Metadata – Data about data. For example: Columns in a fact table. Column names and formats.