Making smarter architecture choices enables flexibility and trust in self-service environments. This module helps you design data models through medallion architecture and proven patterns like star schemas and slowly changing dimensions, choose between warehouse and lakehouse patterns strategically, navigate technology and vendor decisions without analysis paralysis, and manage modeling debt by knowing where to enforce rigor versus accepting pragmatic compromises.

By the end of this step, you'll understand how to classify data by value and apply appropriate modeling rigor to each layer, implement patterns that enable reuse while avoiding over-engineering, and make architecture decisions that balance theoretical best practices with organizational capacity to execute.

Introduction

Step 1: Setup Data Modeling for Business Outcomes

Step 2: Establish Architecture Layers & Rules

Step 3: Apply Advanced Modeling Patterns

Step 4: Choose Your Data Architecture Pattern

Step 5: Navigate Technology & Vendor Decisions

Bonus: When to Accept vs. Fix Modeling Debt

FAQs on Architecture Choices