1 min lesson

The dimensions you actually monitor

Explain the practical point behind "Observability for data is usually framed as a small set of dimensions."

Observability for data is usually framed as a small set of dimensions. Name them, then say which ones you'd wire up first for a brand-new platform.

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Advanced table

Freshness and volume catch the obvious outages

Dimension: Freshness
Question it answers: Did new data land on time?
Concrete check at TB scale: Bronze telemetry partition for the current hour exists and is < 15 min late

Dimension: Volume
Question it answers: Did the right amount arrive?
Concrete check at TB scale: Event count within ±20% of the same hour last week; zero rows = page

Dimension: Schema
Question it answers: Did the shape change underneath us?
Concrete check at TB scale: New or dropped columns, type drift, an enum that grew a value the parser ignores

Dimension: Distribution
Question it answers: Are the values plausible?
Concrete check at TB scale: Null rate on user_id, p99 of latency_ms, ratio of a category that suddenly flips

Dimension: Lineage
Question it answers: What breaks if this breaks?
Concrete check at TB scale: Map from a bronze asset to every silver, gold and serving consumer downstream

Freshness and volume catch the obvious outages. Schema and distribution catch the quiet corruptions that hurt most.
Dimension	Question it answers	Concrete check at TB scale
Freshness	Did new data land on time?	Bronze telemetry partition for the current hour exists and is < 15 min late
Volume	Did the right amount arrive?	Event count within ±20% of the same hour last week; zero rows = page
Schema	Did the shape change underneath us?	New or dropped columns, type drift, an enum that grew a value the parser ignores
Distribution	Are the values plausible?	Null rate on `user_id`, p99 of `latency_ms`, ratio of a category that suddenly flips
Lineage	What breaks if this breaks?	Map from a bronze asset to every silver, gold and serving consumer downstream

Freshness and volume catch the obvious outages. Schema and distribution catch the quiet corruptions that hurt most.