How work proceeds.
WHAT THE STAGES ARE
Understanding the requirement Identifying and assessing sources Designing the model Building ingestion Building transformation Testing Deploying and scheduling Monitoring Maintaining
WHAT TO ESTABLISH FIRST
What question the data must answer, and who will act on it.
WHY
It determines what to collect, how fresh it must be, and how accurate.
WHAT TO AVOID
Building a pipeline before knowing what it serves.
WHAT TO DELIVER FIRST
A thin path end to end: one source, minimal transformation, one useful output.
WHY
It proves the approach and surfaces problems early.
WHAT MAINTENANCE ACTUALLY INVOLVES
Sources changing Volumes growing Requirements changing Failures needing investigation
WHAT PROPORTION OF EFFORT THAT IS
The majority, over a pipeline's life.
WHAT THAT MEANS FOR DESIGN
Build for the person maintaining it, including future you.
WHAT TO DOCUMENT
Where data comes from, what was done to it, and why.
