5 Tips For a Tidy Data Warehouse

Spark joy in your data warehouse by following these data modeling best practices!

Photo by Aleks Dorohovich on Unsplash

Introduction

Building the right data models in your data warehouse can have a huge impact on how much value you get from your data. It can make the difference between a report or analysis taking a week of analyst time vs a day.

When data models are organized and clearly reflect business processes, it makes it easier for analysts to understand and make use of a company’s data.

Let’s take a look at the Do’s and Dont’s of data modeling:

1. Categorize tables (and name them accordingly)
2. Don’t shy away from convenience columns
3. Add a pre-built date dimension table
4. Add metadata columns to tables
5. Maintain a visual view of your table lineage

Ready? Let’s go for it…

Tip #1: Categorize Tables (and name them accordingly)

Organization and structure are everything. Without it, we descend into a world of chaos.

Your data warehouse is no exception, particularly when it comes to the tables in it, of which there can grow to be…