Understanding Grain, Target Dimension, Reconciliation, Enrichment, and Change Dimension in Orchestrated Campaigns
Hi Team,
I'm relatively new to Orchestrated Campaigns and am trying to develop a deeper understanding of a few concepts that seem closely related but are not fully explained in the documentation:
- Grain
- Target Dimension
- Reconciliation
- Enrichment
- Change Dimension
I've reviewed the available documentation, but most examples are fairly basic. I'm hoping to get a more conceptual explanation, ideally with sample data and before/after results.
My Current Understanding
Grain
My interpretation is that grain refers to the level of detail of the dataset, or simply:
"What does a single row represent?"
Examples:
- Customer table → 1 row = 1 Customer
- Order table → 1 row = 1 Order
- Claim table → 1 row = 1 Claim
Target Dimension
My understanding is that the Target Dimension represents the schema/entity that the workflow population currently belongs to.
Examples:
- Customer
- Order
- Claim
Example Scenario
Customer
| CustomerID |
|---|
| C1 |
| C2 |
Orders
| OrderID | CustomerID |
|---|---|
| O1 | C1 |
| O2 | C1 |
| O3 | C1 |
| O4 | C2 |
This is a standard Customer → Orders (1:N) relationship.
Areas of Confusion
-
Is Grain always the same as the Target Dimension, or can they differ at certain points within a workflow?
-
When using the activities below, what happens to:
- Grain
- Target Dimension
- Backend Join Behavior
- Record Count
Activities:
- Reconciliation
- Enrichment
- Change Dimension
My Current Mental Model
| Activity | Grain Change? | Target Dimension Change? | Join Type (My Understanding) | Record Count Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reconciliation | Yes | Yes | Inner Join | May explode to N or remain unchanged depending on whether the relationship is 1:N or N:1 |
| Enrichment (Linking) | No | No | Full Outer Join | Record count remains unchanged; establishes a link and exposes related attributes |
| Change Dimension | Yes | Yes | Right Join | Shifts the population to the target entity; row count may increase, decrease, or remain unchanged depending on the relationship |
I realize some or all of the assumptions above may be incorrect, but this is the mental model I've built based on my experience so far.
What I'm Looking For
Could someone please:
- Validate or correct the assumptions above.
- Explain how Grain and Target Dimension differ (if they do).
- Explain the actual backend behavior of Reconciliation, Enrichment, and Change Dimension.
If there is a better example than Customer → Orders for explaining these concepts, I'd appreciate that as well.
Thanks in advance for any guidance. The documentation feels quite high-level, and I'm looking to build a stronger conceptual understanding of when each activity should be used and how it impacts the workflow internally.
Note: Formatted by AI