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🚀 Why We Need a Business-Friendly Data Transformation Model
Moving beyond “models” and legacy modeling tools
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đź’ˇ Summary:
Modern SQL frameworks like dbt and SQLMesh have revolutionized analytics engineering — but their concepts aren’t always clear to business stakeholders.By shifting to an entity-first, metadata-driven approach, we can keep the agility of SQL while making transformations understandable and governable.
The Challenge: SQL Pipelines Without a Clear Business Model
If you’ve worked with dbt or other SQL transformation frameworks, you’ve probably seen this:
- The word “model” is overloaded.
In dbt, a model is just a SQL file. For business modelers, a “data model” means something entirely different — logical entities, keys, and relationships. - Metadata is scattered.
Column definitions live partly in SQL, partly in YAML. Relationships are implied but not formally documented. - Legacy tools (Erwin, PowerDesigner) still linger.
Most teams use only a fraction of their features, yet pay to maintain them as disconnected metadata silos.