At first, glance when introduced to Workday Adaptive Planning, dimensions and attributes seem to do the same thing, however, a misunderstanding of these key components will lead to a misuse of the system and frustrating reporting. At a high level, the major difference between dimensions and attributes is that data is written to dimensions while attributes are used to tag and group accounts.
The best way to understand dimensions Vs attributes in Workday Adaptive Planning is through an example. Think of dimension as a list of logical values.
Dimension Example – Country: France, Italy, Poland, USA, China, Japan, Mexico, Argentina etc.
Think of attributes as a logical grouping of these values.
Attribute Example – Region: Asia, Americas, Europe
In Adaptive, you will create your DIMENSION Country. Then you will create your ATTRIBUTE Region, related to your Country. Lastly, you will tag each value in your Country Dimension with the Region attribute. This will allow you to view the data individually or as a group when reporting.
Dimension → Attribute
France → Europe
Poland → Europe
USA → Americas
Mexico → Americas
China → Asia
Japan → Asia