analytics-dictionary / term / transformation & metrics

Analytics engineering

Analytics engineering is applying software engineering practices to analytics: version control, testing, documentation and modular code.

Written by Reflective Data experts · updated Oct 5, 2026

Analytics engineers sit between data engineers and analysts. They build clean, tested models in the warehouse so that analysts and business users can answer questions reliably.

dbt popularised the role.

Data modeling Data quality dbt

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dbt test

A dbt test is an automated check that a model meets expectations, such as unique, not…

data-mart.md

Data mart

A data mart is a focused subset of a warehouse built for one team or subject,…

metric-tree.md

Metric tree

A metric tree breaks a top-level metric down into the input metrics that drive it.

dimension.md

Dimension

A dimension is an attribute used to slice or group metrics, such as country, device or…

sqlmesh.md

SQLMesh

SQLMesh is a data transformation framework with virtual environments and strong change management.

data-contract.md

Data contract

A data contract is an agreement between data producers and consumers about the structure and meaning…

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