dbt Testing for Small Data Teams

dbt tests are one of the easiest ways to catch bad data before it reaches dashboards.

Start with your most important models

Prioritize tests on:

• revenue and billing facts
• customer lifecycle dimensions
• executive dashboard marts

The minimum test set

For each critical model, begin with:

• not_null on primary business keys
• unique on grain-defining keys
• relationships for core joins
• one custom logic test for a business rule

models:
  - name: fct_orders
    columns:
      - name: order_id
        tests:
          - not_null
          - unique
      - name: customer_id
        tests:
          - relationships:
              to: ref('dim_customers')
              field: customer_id

Common mistakes to avoid

• Testing every staging column before core marts are covered
• Creating custom tests without ownership
• Ignoring flaky tests instead of fixing data contracts

Weekly routine

• Run tests on every production deploy.
• Publish failures to the same channel as engineering incidents.
• Track failure categories monthly and remove recurring root causes.

A small test set you run every week is better than a big one nobody trusts.