Beyond Generic Tests: Valuable dbt Testing Techniques

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Venue Details

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Improving is located at 1515 Central Ave NE. If there is parking available in the front, feel free to use it. Otherwise, there is a lot behind the building (on the Fillmore side). You can walk to the front from that lot or message Donald to let you in the back entrance (612.964.4104).

Online Link to Join

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Agenda

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6:30-7:00 Pizza and Networking

7:00 Kickoff and Announcements/Who's Hiring/Who's Looking

7:05 Beyond Generic Tests: Valuable dbt Testing Techniques

(Donald Sawyer, Director of Data Engineering @ Improving MN)

8:00 Networking

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Presentation Overview

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The dbt testing functionality is incredibly valuable, whether it be generic or bespoke tests, but not every test is created equally. There are other methods for a developer to build additional quality validation as a part of a dbt pipeline. Data-focused functional unit testing validates the transformation logic built by a developer, and can be integrated as part of a CI/CD pipeline, or a test-driven development approach. Data contract validation can be used to ensure that changes to your models don't violate defined data contracts.

In this talk, multiple testing methods will be shared and demo'ed to show how you can elevate your dbt quality to the next level. Topics that will be discussed will include functional unit testing with dbt-unit-testing, data contract validation using dbt core functionality in 1.5.0+, and advanced data quality testing using dbt-expectations.

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Speaker Bio

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Donald Sawyer is the Director of Data Engineering at Improving MN. He has almost of decade of experience applying software engineering skills like testing, scrum, UX, and architecture design, to data science and engineering. He also built and has taught the course, "Big Data Engineering and Architecture" at the University of Minnesota for the past six years. He has built numerous TDDE frameworks for clients and has given many talks on the quality side of data engineering.