July 5, 2024
Analytics engineering habits that stick
Seven rituals that keep semantic layers healthy long after the migration hype fades.
Canvas excerpt
Snapshots from the working board
Signals for semantic layers, freshness, and enablement habits.
note
Freshness Scorecard
Dashboard component showing test status + freshness per source.
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Release Notes
Metric contracts versioned + published with changelog.
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Enablement Loop
Sprint review with consumer demos & doc updates.
View the full canvas on the dedicated canvas page to follow every decision.
Treat the semantic layer as a product
If nobody owns your semantic contracts, consumers will invent their own. I publish release notes for metric changes and version the contracts just like an API.
Scorecards for freshness and trust
Every dashboard pulls freshness and test results into the UI. When freshness dips, users know why before they ping data engineering.
Pair modeling with enablement
Docs rot unless they are used. I embed enablement sessions into sprint reviews. If the model or transformation cannot be explained in plain language, it gets refactored.
Automate lineage signals
Tie lineage events to Slack channels engineering already watches. It keeps drift visible without another tool.
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Summary
- Reading time: 1 min read
- Published: 7/5/2024
- Tags: analytics engineering, dbt, governance