For years, I have been working with SQL Database Projects. I wrote stored procedures, created tables and views, and shipped DACPAC files through pipelines to deploy the next version of the data warehouse.

Then, with Microsoft Fabric, one question became more and more popular: "Would dbt be a good fit?"

Recently, I have been implementing dbt for Microsoft Fabric. In this session, I will take you through my experience and learnings with dbt. I will share the similarities and the fundamental differences in development, mindset, processing, and deployment.

We will look at the shift from describing the state of your database to describing transformations, where every model is a SELECT statement, and dependencies are no longer managed by hand. We will compare stored procedures and MERGE statements with dbt materializations and incremental models. We will also compare DACPAC deployments with a dbt CI/CD pipeline on Microsoft Fabric. And we will answer an important question: do SQL Database Projects and dbt compete, or can they live together?

This session is intended for developers with a T-SQL background and for developers working with SQL Database Projects who want to explore what dbt can offer. No prior dbt knowledge is needed.

Don't worry, I will be sharing my honest opinion on what works and what doesn't. You will leave knowing which of your skills carry over, which habits to unlearn, and whether dbt is the right choice for your team.