When to Use
- Structure a dbt project (layers, naming, materializations)
- Build staging → intermediate → mart pipelines in the warehouse
- Implement incremental, snapshot, or CDC-driven models
- Add tests (unique, not null, relationships, custom SQL) and freshness checks
- Document models and expose lineage for BI and stakeholders
- Define marts that map to metrics and dashboards
- Set up CI for analytics SQL (compile, test, slim CI)
- Debug metric mismatches between mart and dashboard
When NOT to Use
- Enterprise mesh, governance program, platform selection →
data-architect - Partition/cluster tuning without dbt context →
data-warehouse-engineer - Chart choice, executive dashboards, stakeholder storytelling →
bi-analyst - Feature engineering, training, experiments →
data-scientist - Data org roadmap and steward operations →
data-manager - Analytics eng hiring, squad roadmap, launch governance →
analytics-data-engineering-manager-product - Generic app CI/CD without analytics patterns →
devops
Related skills
| Need | Skill |
|---|---|
| Warehouse SQL tuning, star schema theory | data-warehouse-engineer |
| KPI definitions and dashboards | bi-analyst |
| Platform and domain architecture | data-architect |
| Pipeline on-call and platform SLOs | data-system-ops-lead |
| ML and advanced stats | data-scientist |
| Requirements and metric business rules | business-analyst |
Core Workflows
1. Project layout and conventions
Layering, naming (stg_, int_, fct_, dim_), materialization defaults, env targets.
See references/dbt_project_structure.md.
2. Modeling for analytics
Facts, dimensions, wide marts, grain, degenerate dimensions, bridge tables.
See references/analytics_modeling.md.
3. Incremental and CDC
Merge strategies, full-refresh exceptions, late-arriving facts.
See references/incremental_cdc.md.
4. Quality and contracts
Tests, severity, source freshness, optional contracts with downstream.
See references/testing_quality.md.
5. Docs, lineage, exposures
Model descriptions, column docs, exposures to BI tools.
See references/docs_lineage_exposures.md.
6. Metrics alignment
Grain, definitions, ownership with bi-analyst and business-analyst.
See references/metrics_alignment.md.
Output standards
- Every mart documents grain and primary key in YAML
- Tests on keys and critical business rules before merge
- PR includes: models changed, test plan, backfill impact, downstream exposures
- No breaking grain change without migration note to BI
When to load references
- dbt layout →
references/dbt_project_structure.md - Modeling →
references/analytics_modeling.md - Incremental →
references/incremental_cdc.md - Tests →
references/testing_quality.md - Docs/CI →
references/docs_lineage_exposures.md - Metrics →
references/metrics_alignment.md