Change: formula, filter, dimension, time
Dependents: models, metrics, reports, agents
Compare: old and new results
Release: approval, effective date, notice
Recover: version, history, owner
Map impact before editing
Changing “active customer” from order to payment can alter repeat rate, channel contribution, segmentation, reports, and related questions. Overwriting the formula silently changes history.
Semantic assets need versioned upstream and downstream dependencies.
Classify compatible, breaking, and corrective change
Adding descriptions or synonyms is usually compatible. Formula, filter, time, or grain changes are usually breaking. Corrections need a decision about historical restatement.
Give each class different approval, notification, parallel-run, and rollback requirements.
Compare two versions on one snapshot
Run old and new definitions against the same data and compare totals, groups, trends, and boundary samples. Every difference should follow from the change note.
Run high-frequency natural-language regression questions and inspect metric choice, joins, filters, and narrative for unintended changes.
Choose an effective and historical policy
Options include prospective adoption, full historical recomputation, or parallel definitions during transition. Show the version or effective date in reports and answers.
Define invalidation or retention for caches, exports, alerts, and already delivered reports.
Test impact analysis during selection
Change one widely used metric and check whether a tool lists dependencies, previews differences, approves, rolls back, and replays questions. Formula editing alone is not production governance.
BuildTable can be evaluated as an AI-friendly modeling path; dependency granularity, versioning, approval, and regression need POC verification.
Public references
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