Making a warehouse usable.
WHY IT MATTERS
A warehouse nobody can navigate is used by nobody, whatever is in it.
WHAT TO STANDARDISE
Table naming, indicating layer and subject Column naming, consistently Date and timestamp naming, including time zone Boolean naming, reading as assertions Key naming
WHY TIME ZONES SPECIFICALLY
Mixed time zones in a warehouse cause errors that are extremely hard to trace.
WHAT TO ADOPT
One time zone for storage, stated in the name or documentation.
WHAT TO DOCUMENT PER TABLE
What it contains Its grain Where it comes from How often it updates Who owns it
WHAT TO DOCUMENT PER COLUMN
What it means Its units Valid values Whether nulls are meaningful
WHY NULLS SPECIFICALLY
A null may mean unknown, not applicable, or zero, and confusing them produces wrong results.
WHAT TO GENERATE
Documentation from the model definitions, where tooling allows.
WHY
Manually maintained documentation diverges immediately.
WHAT TO MAKE SEARCHABLE
All of it.
WHAT TO REVIEW
Whether users can find what they need without asking.
