About the Course


Excited about artificial intelligence and machine learning?

The database is the most important part of most modern software companies' tech stacks, and it's only becoming more important. Yet, most computer science programs today only include a single introductory course on databases.

An old saying still applies: garbage in, garbage out. Most firms seeking to leverage these technologies will not succeed in delivering a boost to the bottom line, and the most common reason for this revolves around their data hygiene.

Learn how to build the groundwork for success with a comprehensive data architecture and governance strategy - understand, structure, properly tag and label, trace lineage and control access, improve the quality, and fill in the gaps in your organization’s data. This course will also cover operational topics such as migrations and deployment (with zero downtime), ETL processes, and how to integrate both relational and non-relational databases.

3-5 days; for a technical audience including engineers, product managers, IT executives, etc.




Course Curriculum


  Preview, Slides, and Links
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  The Basics
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  Maintaining Meaningful Determinism
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  Tracking and Representing History
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  Migrations
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  Governance & Data Management
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  Caches & Specialized Databases
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  Staying Out of Trouble
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Chris Shaffer

CTO / Data Architect

I have a long track record of successfully building software products from the ground-up, raising funds, going to market, and turning around troubled teams. I like to use hands-on work and delivering working code as a vehicle to derive more strategic and impactful insights. There is no "non-technical CTO" here.

I have over a decade of experience building technology. That experience ranges from teams in the hundreds to just myself, from pre-series A startups to companies older than my grandparents. I’ve built software and teams for startups – repeatedly – that transformed the definition of “technology” in the office’s vernacular from “that thing that’s always broken” to “the competitive advantage that pushes us forward when all else fails”.

If you have a business, and you use technology, there’s probably something I can bring to the table. That includes all the things that you typically think of: writing code, setting up deployments, cybersecurity, database admin; and some you might not: hiring, mentoring, developing policies and procedures, and setting strategic direction. If you’re doing good work, bringing joy to customers, or making the world a better place, I want to be part of it.

After graduating with a Bachelor's and Master's in Computer Science from Stevens Institute of Technology, Chris went on to develop his career in application architecture, software development, and data engineering. He's worked on financial, business, healthcare, biotech, and consumer platforms as an independent consultant with numerous successful client projects, as Chief Technology Officer at Climb Credit, as Director of Engineering at Relationship Science, and at Capital IQ.