Understand what a data warehouse is and why teams use it.
School of Data & AIData EngineeringIntermediateIncluded in a Professional Diploma
Data Warehousing
Learn how trusted business data is organized for reporting, dashboards, and analytics.
Understand data warehouse architecture, staging layers, fact tables, dimension tables, star schemas, data marts, metrics, and reporting-ready datasets.
Duration
7 weeks - 6-8 hours/week
Project
Understand what a data warehouse is and why teams use it.
Support
Pricing and enrolment are handled through the Professional Diploma
Overview
A practical Short Course built around a visible project.
Learn how modern teams organize trusted business data for analytics, reporting, and decision-making.
Explain the difference between operational databases and analytical warehouses.
Understand warehouse layers such as staging, transformation, and reporting.
Design fact and dimension tables.
Understand star schemas and analytical modeling patterns.
Work with business metrics and reporting-ready datasets.
Understand data marts and subject-area reporting.
Recognize common warehouse design mistakes.
Prepare warehouse structures for BI and analytics tools.
Build portfolio-ready warehouse design projects.
Course roadmap
What you will work through.
The sequence below is specific to this course. It shows the phases, modules, lessons, and page outlines that move you toward Understand what a data warehouse is and why teams use it..
1Phase 1 - Data Warehouse FoundationsBuild the conceptual foundation for warehouses: why they exist, how they differ from operational systems, and where they fit in the modern data stack.2 modules9 lessons1–2 weeks
Module 1: Why Data Warehouses ExistUnderstand the business and technical problems that make warehouses necessary.4 lessons
Lesson 1: The Analytics Problem in Growing CompaniesUnderstand why growing companies struggle with scattered data, conflicting reports, slow dashboards, Excel chaos, and inconsistent KPI definitions.85 minarticle6 pages
Welcome and Learning Objectives
Introduce the business problem that creates the need for warehouses.
8 min
Scattered Data and Conflicting Reports
Explain scattered data problems.
18 min
Why Excel Chaos Happens
Explain spreadsheet-driven reporting issues.
18 min
Operational Systems Are Not Built for Analytics
Explain why production systems should not power every report.
20 min
Leadership Needs Trusted Data
Explain the executive need.
18 min
Exercise - Conflicting Revenue Scenario
Students analyze a company scenario with conflicting revenue numbers.
21 min
Lesson 2: What Is a Data Warehouse?Explain a data warehouse as a central analytical store for historical, integrated, subject-oriented, trusted data that supports BI, analytics, and decisions.85 minarticle5 pages
Welcome and Learning Objectives
Introduce the warehouse concept.
8 min
Warehouse Definition in Plain English
Explain the concept simply.
20 min
Warehouse Use Cases
Show where warehouses support teams.
20 min
Trusted Reporting Layer
Explain trust and documentation.
18 min
Exercise - Explain the Warehouse
Students explain the warehouse to a business manager.
39 min
Lesson 3: Operational Database vs Data WarehouseDifferentiate OLTP and OLAP systems, transaction processing, analytical querying, normalized operational systems, analytical models, read-heavy workloads, and why production databases should not power all analytics.85 minarticle4 pages
Welcome and Learning Objectives
Introduce OLTP vs OLAP.
8 min
OLTP and OLAP
Explain operational vs analytical systems.
22 min
Why Production Databases Should Not Power Every Dashboard
Explain production risk.
20 min
Exercise - Operational or Analytical?
Students classify use cases.
35 min
Lesson 4: Data Warehouse vs Data Lake vs LakehouseCompare warehouses, lakes, and lakehouses, including structured and semi-structured data, raw storage, curated analytics, tradeoffs, and where AI/ML fit.85 minarticle4 pages
Welcome and Learning Objectives
Introduce warehouse, lake, and lakehouse distinctions.
8 min
Warehouse, Lake and Lakehouse
Explain the three architectures.
24 min
Where AI and ML Fit
Connect architectures to AI and ML.
20 min
Exercise - Architecture Choice Scenarios
Students choose the right architecture for business scenarios.
37 min
Module 2: The Modern Warehouse EcosystemUnderstand the warehouse ecosystem, platforms, users, success criteria, and high-level architecture.5 lessons
Lesson 1: Where Warehouses Fit in the Data StackMap source systems, ingestion, storage, transformation, orchestration, BI tools, ML/AI consumers, and governance.60 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
30 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
22 min
Lesson 2: Common Warehouse PlatformsCompare BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift, Databricks SQL, Azure Synapse/Fabric Warehouse, PostgreSQL as small warehouse, and cloud-native tradeoffs.60 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
30 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
22 min
Lesson 3: Warehouse Users and ConsumersMap executives, analysts, BI developers, data scientists, engineers, AI systems, product, and operations teams to datasets.55 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
27 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
20 min
Lesson 4: Warehouse Success CriteriaDefine success using trust, performance, freshness, consistency, documentation, cost, access control, maintainability, and usefulness.60 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
30 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
22 min
Lesson 5: Mini Project 1 - Warehouse Architecture ReviewReview a messy company data scenario and propose a high-level warehouse architecture.100 minarticle2 pages
Project Brief
Explain the project scenario and expected output.
20 min
Review Checklist
Checklist for project quality.
20 min
2Phase 2 - Data Modeling Foundations for WarehousesBuild modeling depth required for warehouse design: entities, grain, normalized/denormalized models, keys, relationships, many-to-many patterns, and assumptions.2 modules9 lessons1–2 weeks
Module 1: Understanding Data ModelsUnderstand entities, attributes, relationships, grain, normalized models, and analytical models.4 lessons
Lesson 1: What Is Data Modeling?Explain entities, attributes, relationships, business rules, data structure as business meaning, modeling importance, and trust.60 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
30 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
22 min
Lesson 2: Data GrainDefine row-level meaning across transaction, daily, customer, product, and event grains.70 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
35 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
27 min
Lesson 3: Normalized ModelsUse normalization, reduced duplication, relational integrity, transactional systems, operational databases, and source structure.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 4: Denormalized Analytical ModelsUse denormalization, analytics performance, reporting convenience, wide tables, metric consistency, benefits, and risks.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Module 2: Keys, Relationships and Modeling RulesDesign stable keys, relationships, referential checks, many-to-many patterns, and documentation.5 lessons
Lesson 1: Primary Keys and Natural KeysChoose primary, natural, surrogate, composite, stable, business, and warehouse keys.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 2: Foreign Keys and Referential IntegrityUse foreign keys, parent-child relationships, orphan records, referential checks, and fact-to-dimension relationships.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 3: Many-to-Many RelationshipsModel bridge tables, junction tables, enrollments, product categories, user roles, tags, and analytics issues.70 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
35 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
27 min
Lesson 4: Modeling Assumptions and DocumentationDocument business assumptions, model assumptions, ownership, definitions, and dashboard-impacting assumptions.60 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
30 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
22 min
Lesson 5: Milestone Project 1 - Warehouse Modeling FoundationDesign a warehouse modeling foundation for LMS, CRM, e-commerce, fintech, healthcare, logistics, or SaaS.120 minarticle2 pages
Project Brief
Explain the project scenario and expected output.
20 min
Review Checklist
Checklist for project quality.
20 min
3Phase 3 - Warehouse Architecture and LayersDesign layered warehouse architecture, naming standards, mapping, lineage, and documentation.2 modules10 lessons1–2 weeks
Module 1: Warehouse Layering StrategyDesign raw, staging, intermediate, curated, and mart layers with separation of concerns.5 lessons
Lesson 1: Why Warehouse Layers MatterExplain raw, staging, intermediate, curated, mart layers, separation of concerns, and source-to-consumer flow.55 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
27 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
20 min
Lesson 2: Raw Layer DesignDesign raw storage with source tracking, load timestamps, schema drift, auditability, immutability, and traceability.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 3: Staging Layer DesignDesign one-to-one cleanup, renamed fields, data casts, light standardization, source meaning preservation, and no heavy logic.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 4: Intermediate and Curated LayersDesign reusable business logic, source combinations, entity/event models, dependency management, and transformation reuse.70 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
35 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
27 min
Lesson 5: Data Mart LayerDesign department-ready sales, finance, product, education, and operations marts.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Module 2: Warehouse Naming, Organization and LineageCreate professional naming standards, source-to-target mappings, lineage diagrams, and documentation.5 lessons
Lesson 1: Warehouse Naming ConventionsUse schemas/databases, table names, column names, prefixes, suffixes, layer naming, and avoid unclear names.60 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
30 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
22 min
Lesson 2: Source-to-Target MappingDocument source fields, target fields, transformation notes, quality concerns, refresh frequency, ownership, and lineage.70 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
35 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
27 min
Lesson 3: Data LineageShow source-to-target flow, dependencies, impact, lineage diagrams, debugging, and BI impact.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 4: Warehouse Documentation StandardsWrite table descriptions, column descriptions, metric definitions, owners, freshness, limitations, and assumptions.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 5: Milestone Project 2 - Warehouse Layer DesignDesign warehouse layers, naming standards, mappings, lineage, and documentation plan for one domain.120 minarticle2 pages
Project Brief
Explain the project scenario and expected output.
20 min
Review Checklist
Checklist for project quality.
20 min
4Phase 4 - Dimensional Warehouse DesignDesign dimensional models using business processes, fact tables, dimensions, star schemas, conformed dimensions, date dimensions, and advanced patterns.2 modules10 lessons2 weeks
Module 1: Dimensional Modeling for WarehousesUnderstand analytical modeling, business processes, fact tables, and dimension tables.4 lessons
Lesson 1: Why Analytical Models Are DifferentCompare operational systems and analytical systems for speed, business-friendliness, repeatable KPIs, history, BI, and trust.60 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
30 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
22 min
Lesson 2: Business Process ModelingIdentify business processes, events, transactions, lifecycle milestones, measurable activities, and process matrix.70 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
35 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
27 min
Lesson 3: Fact TablesDesign facts, measures, event/transaction grains, transaction facts, periodic snapshots, accumulating snapshots, and factless facts.75 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
37 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
30 min
Lesson 4: Dimension TablesDesign descriptive attributes, customer/product/date/location/status/user dimensions, and slowly changing attributes.70 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
35 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
27 min
Module 2: Star Schema and Advanced Dimensional PatternsDesign star schemas, snowflakes, conformed dimensions, date dimensions, role-playing dates, and degenerate dimensions.6 lessons
Lesson 1: Star Schema DesignDesign fact-centered star schemas with dimensions, BI usability, simple queries, performance, and avoid common mistakes.70 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
35 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
27 min
Lesson 2: Snowflake SchemaUnderstand normalized dimensions, when snowflaking helps, complexity tradeoffs, storage vs usability, and BI experience.60 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
30 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
22 min
Lesson 3: Conformed DimensionsDesign shared dimensions across multiple fact tables for consistent reporting.70 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
35 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
27 min
Lesson 4: Date DimensionsDesign calendar tables, fiscal periods, week/month/quarter/year, business calendars, time intelligence, and role-playing dates.70 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
35 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
27 min
Lesson 5: Role-Playing and Degenerate DimensionsUse order/payment/delivery dates, invoice numbers, transaction references, order numbers, and operational identifiers in facts.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 6: Milestone Project 3 - Dimensional Warehouse ModelProduce a complete dimensional warehouse model.140 minarticle2 pages
Project Brief
Explain the project scenario and expected output.
20 min
Review Checklist
Checklist for project quality.
20 min
5Phase 5 - Historical Data and Slowly Changing DimensionsDesign history-aware warehouses using SCD strategies, full refresh, incremental loads, snapshots, late data, and backfills.2 modules9 lessons1–2 weeks
Module 1: History in Data WarehousesUnderstand why history matters and choose SCD strategies.4 lessons
Lesson 1: Why History MattersTrack changing customer details, product categories, subscription plans, employee assignments, and current vs historical truth.60 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
30 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
22 min
Lesson 2: Slowly Changing Dimensions OverviewCompare SCD Type 0, Type 1, Type 2, Type 3 high level, selection strategy, and business tradeoffs.70 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
35 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
27 min
Lesson 3: Type 1 DimensionsDesign overwrite logic, current-state reporting, acceptable Type 1 cases, history loss risk, and update logic.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 4: Type 2 DimensionsDesign effective_from, effective_to, is_current, surrogate keys, change detection, historical joins, and versioning.75 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
37 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
30 min
Module 2: Warehouse Loading and History StrategiesDesign full refresh, incremental load, snapshot, late-arriving data, and backfill strategies.5 lessons
Lesson 1: Full RefreshUnderstand rebuild-from-scratch, simplicity, cost, performance, when it works, and when it fails.55 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
27 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
20 min
Lesson 2: Incremental LoadsDesign append, merge, high-watermark, updated_at, batch IDs, late-arriving records, and idempotency concepts.70 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
35 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
27 min
Lesson 3: SnapshotsDesign periodic snapshots, daily balances, subscriptions, inventory, account status, and why snapshots matter.70 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
35 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
27 min
Lesson 4: Late-Arriving Data and BackfillsPlan delayed events, corrections, reprocessing, backfills, dashboard impact, and historical repair.70 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
35 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
27 min
Lesson 5: Milestone Project 4 - Historical Warehouse DesignProduce a history-aware warehouse design package.130 minarticle2 pages
Project Brief
Explain the project scenario and expected output.
20 min
Review Checklist
Checklist for project quality.
20 min
6Phase 6 - Data Marts, Metrics and BI ReadinessDesign data marts, metrics layers, KPI tables, aggregate tables, and BI-ready consumption models.2 modules9 lessons1–2 weeks
Module 1: Designing Data MartsBuild subject-specific marts and self-service analytics models.4 lessons
Lesson 1: What Is a Data Mart?Define subject-specific analytics, business department views, and common marts.55 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
27 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
20 min
Lesson 2: Department-Focused MartsDesign marts around sales, finance, customer, operations, product, learning metrics, and stakeholder needs.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 3: Wide Reporting TablesUse dashboard-ready views, denormalized reporting tables, BI convenience, performance, and safe self-service.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 4: Self-Service AnalyticsDesign analyst-friendly models, naming clarity, metric definitions, safe joins, discoverability, and reduced confusion.60 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
30 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
22 min
Module 2: Metrics Layer and KPI ConsistencyDesign reusable metric definitions, KPI tables, aggregate tables, and BI-ready marts.5 lessons
Lesson 1: Why Metric Definitions BreakDiagnose inconsistent revenue, active user, churn, filters, grains, spreadsheet drift, and dashboard trust problems.60 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
30 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
22 min
Lesson 2: Designing a Metrics LayerDefine metric definitions, dimensions, filters, time windows, ownership, documentation, and reuse.70 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
35 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
27 min
Lesson 3: KPI Tables and Aggregate TablesDesign summary tables, daily KPI tables, performance pre-aggregation, refresh schedules, and ownership.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 4: BI Tool ReadinessPrepare for Power BI, Tableau/Looker concepts, semantic models, date tables, relationships, field naming, and RLS implications.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 5: Milestone Project 5 - BI-Ready Data MartBuild a BI-ready mart design for one business team.125 minarticle2 pages
Project Brief
Explain the project scenario and expected output.
20 min
Review Checklist
Checklist for project quality.
20 min
7Phase 7 - Warehouse Performance, Governance and OperationsDesign-level warehouse performance, cost, governance, security, access, data contracts, refresh, monitoring, backfills, and runbooks.3 modules13 lessons1–2 weeks
Module 1: Warehouse Performance and Cost AwarenessUnderstand performance and cost implications of warehouse design.4 lessons
Lesson 1: Query Performance in WarehousesReview table scans, joins, aggregations, sorting, filters, expensive queries, and model design impact.60 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
30 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
22 min
Lesson 2: Partitioning and Clustering ConceptsChoose date partitioning, pruning, clustering keys, sort keys, distribution concepts, and platform differences.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 3: Pre-Aggregation and MaterializationUse materialized tables, views, aggregate tables, incremental marts, acceleration, and refresh tradeoffs.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 4: Cost-Aware Warehouse DesignControl storage, compute, query, refresh, incremental processing, retention, and unnecessary wide tables.60 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
30 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
22 min
Module 2: Governance, Security and AccessDesign ownership, access control, privacy, compliance concepts, and data contracts.4 lessons
Lesson 1: Data Governance BasicsAssign ownership, definitions, stewardship, quality responsibility, documentation, approval flows, and metric governance.60 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
30 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
22 min
Lesson 2: Access ControlDesign role-based access, department access, sensitive data handling, RLS, column masking, least privilege, and BI implications.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 3: Privacy and Compliance ConceptsHandle personal data, retention, deletion, consent, audit logs, minimization, and sensitive mart fields.60 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
30 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
22 min
Lesson 4: Data ContractsDraft source expectations, schema stability, breaking changes, producer/consumer agreements, contract testing, and ownership.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Module 3: Warehouse OperationsDesign refresh schedules, monitoring metrics, backfill plans, and support runbooks.5 lessons
Lesson 1: Refresh StrategyDesign daily, hourly, near-real-time, batch windows, dependency order, and freshness SLAs.60 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
30 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
22 min
Lesson 2: Monitoring Warehouse HealthDefine freshness, row count, failed transformation, stale mart, query failure, complaint, and quality metrics.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 3: Backfills and ReprocessingPlan historical corrections, schema changes, new logic, rerunning old periods, risk, and validation.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 4: Warehouse RunbooksWrite incident response, failed load, wrong dashboard, late source, access request, troubleshooting, and escalation guides.65 minarticle3 pages
Overview and Learning Objectives
Introduce the lesson and clarify expected outcomes.
8 min
Concepts and Professional Workflow
Explain the concept through a professional warehouse design workflow.
32 min
Practice Activity
Apply the lesson through a guided warehouse design exercise.
25 min
Lesson 5: Mini Project 2 - Warehouse Governance and Operations PackageProduce governance and operations assets for a warehouse design.120 minarticle2 pages
Project Brief
Explain the project scenario and expected output.
20 min
Review Checklist
Checklist for project quality.
20 min
8Phase 8 - CapstoneComplete a full data warehouse design capstone for a realistic business domain.1 modules3 lessons1–2 weeks
Module 1: Data Warehouse Design CapstoneDesign a complete analytics warehouse covering architecture, modeling, layers, facts, dimensions, history, marts, metrics, governance, BI readiness, documentation, and operations.3 lessons
Lesson 1: Capstone OptionsChoose a realistic business domain for the warehouse design capstone.55 minarticle1 pages
Choose Your Data Warehouse Capstone
Review approved capstone options.
55 min
Lesson 2: Final Capstone - Data Warehouse Design CapstoneDesign a complete analytics warehouse for a realistic business domain.220 minarticle2 pages
Project Brief
Explain the project scenario and expected output.
20 min
Review Checklist
Checklist for project quality.
20 min
Lesson 3: Graduation Requirements and Portfolio OutcomeClarify completion requirements and portfolio assets.55 minarticle1 pages
Requirements and Portfolio Checklist
Summarize graduation requirements and portfolio outcomes.
55 min
Tools and skills
Build skill with the tools used in the work.
Understand what a data warehouse is and why teams use it.Explain the difference between operational databases and analytical warehouses.Understand warehouse layers such as staging, transformation, and reporting.Design fact and dimension tables.Understand star schemas and analytical modeling patterns.Work with business metrics and reporting-ready datasets.Understand data marts and subject-area reporting.Recognize common warehouse design mistakes.Prepare warehouse structures for BI and analytics tools.Build portfolio-ready warehouse design projects.
Projects and exercises
- Understand what a data warehouse is and why teams use it.
- Structured exercises
- Portfolio practice
Resources included
- Course resources
- Project guidance
- Learners building practical tech skills
- A willingness to practice consistently
Career relevance
Data Warehousing supports practical career readiness.
Related Professional Diploma
View Professional DiplomaData Engineering
Learn how to build the pipelines, data models, warehouses, orchestration workflows, and cloud data systems that power analytics, reporting, machine learning, and AI products.
FAQ
Questions about this Short Course.
Short Course answers about scope, projects, support, and next steps.
A data warehouse is a system designed to store and organize data for reporting, dashboards, analytics, and decision-making.
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