In today’s data-driven world, seamless orchestration of complex workflows is essential for scalable and reliable data engineering. Workflow Orchestration with Prefect is a hands-on training course designed to help data engineers, analysts, and DevOps professionals master the orchestration of modern data pipelines using Prefect—one of the most flexible and scalable orchestration frameworks available. Participants will learn how to schedule, monitor, and automate data workflows with Prefect, integrating seamlessly with tools like DBT, Airbyte, and Snowflake. The course covers both Prefect 1.0 and 2.0, cloud vs. server deployment, state handling, triggers, failure recovery, and performance optimization, equipping learners to streamline their workflows with minimal code and maximum control.

Duration: 10 Days

Target Audience

• Data Engineers
• DevOps Engineers
• Machine Learning Engineers
• ETL Developers
• Data Platform Engineers
• Analytics Engineers
• Technical Project Managers
• Software Developers

Course Objectives

• Understand the fundamentals and architecture of Prefect
• Build and orchestrate robust, modular data workflows
• Integrate Prefect with cloud platforms and data tools
• Monitor, schedule, and retry tasks with precision
• Handle errors, state transitions, and conditional logic
• Optimize pipeline performance and resource usage
• Deploy workflows using Prefect Cloud or self-hosted options
• Apply Prefect to real-world use cases across industries
• Manage parameterized flows and dynamic tasks
• Build dashboards and observability for operational confidence
• Implement secure and scalable orchestration infrastructure

Course Modules

Module 1: Introduction to Workflow Orchestration and Prefect

• Understanding workflow orchestration in modern data environments
• Overview of Prefect and its use cases
• Prefect vs other orchestration tools (Airflow, Dagster, Luigi)
• Setting up a local Prefect environment
• Prefect 1.0 vs Prefect 2.0 features

Module 2: Prefect Core Concepts and Architecture

• Flows, tasks, states, and parameters
• DAG-free flow design principles
• Agents, deployments, and schedules
• Execution layers and Prefect Cloud
• Prefect API and orchestration backends

Module 3: Building Your First Prefect Flows

• Writing tasks and defining flows
• Parameterizing tasks and using inputs/outputs
• Orchestrating sequential and parallel tasks
• Using the @flow and @task decorators
• Executing and monitoring flows

Module 4: Prefect Task Management and Retry Logic

• Setting retries and handling timeouts
• Using triggers and conditional execution
• Managing task state transitions
• Implementing backoff strategies
• Building fault-tolerant task chains

Module 5: Scheduling and Flow Deployment

• Time-based and event-based scheduling
• Deploying flows using Prefect CLI and YAML
• Version control and reproducible deployments
• Configuring schedules with intervals, cron, and RRules
• Triggering flows via API or Prefect Cloud UI

Module 6: Logging, Monitoring, and Alerting

• Enabling structured logging in flows
• Capturing logs from failed tasks
• Setting up Prefect notifications and alerts
• Integrating with Slack, PagerDuty, and email
• Using dashboards and log viewers

Module 7: Dynamic Workflows and Mapping

• Task mapping for parallel execution
• Building dynamic flows with loops and branching
• Handling variable input lengths
• Using result caching across mapped tasks
• Reducing repetitive code with helper utilities

Module 8: Orchestrating External Tools and APIs

• Integrating Prefect with Snowflake, DBT, BigQuery
• Triggering external workflows using HTTP and CLI
• Orchestrating file movement with S3, GCS, and FTP
• Using Prefect with Airbyte, Great Expectations
• Authenticating with secrets and credentials

Module 9: Deployment Architectures: Cloud vs Self-Hosted

• Setting up Prefect Cloud workspace
• Managing users, roles, and permissions
• Deploying Prefect Server with Docker and Kubernetes
• Comparing latency, cost, and control
• Hybrid setups and scaling agents

Module 10: Configuration and Environment Management

• Managing environments using .env files and profiles
• Parameterizing flows for CI/CD pipelines
• Registering flows with environment variables
• Using Prefect blocks and secrets
• Best practices for configuration management

Module 11: Error Handling and Flow Resilience

• Capturing and analyzing task errors
• Building custom failure hooks
• Retry logic for network and API failures
• Creating fallback flows and safe exits
• Building resilient pipelines for unreliable sources

Module 12: Prefect Collections and Reusability

• Using Prefect Collections for reusable components
• Creating reusable tasks across projects
• Sharing flows and patterns with Prefect Hub
• Designing flows with modular architecture
• Testing flows using mocks and fixtures

Module 13: Performance Optimization for Prefect Flows

• Identifying bottlenecks in orchestration
• Leveraging concurrency and async features
• Managing flow runtime and execution priority
• Flow and task memory management
• Efficient logging and task completion metrics

Module 14: CI/CD Integration and Automation

• Integrating Prefect into GitHub Actions, GitLab CI
• Automating deployment via CI pipelines
• Versioning flow deployments with Git
• Building continuous test and deploy workflows
• Using Docker for portable orchestration pipelines

Module 15: Real-World Use Cases and Final Project

• Data ingestion from APIs and batch processing
• Triggering ML model training pipelines
• Orchestrating ETL and reporting dashboards
• Final hands-on project with full pipeline deployment
• Review, Q&A, and certification assessment

Training Approach

This course will be delivered by our skilled trainers who have vast knowledge and experience as expert professionals in the fields. The course is taught in English and through a mix of theory, practical activities, group discussion and case studies. Course manuals and additional training materials will be provided to the participants upon completion of the training.

Tailor-Made Course

This course can also be tailor-made to meet organization requirement. For further inquiries, please contact us on: Email: info@skillsforafrica.org, training@skillsforafrica.org Tel: +254 702 249 449

Training Venue

The training will be held at our Skills for Africa Training Institute Training Centre. We also offer training for a group at requested location all over the world. The course fee covers the course tuition, training materials, two break refreshments, and buffet lunch.

Visa application, travel expenses, airport transfers, dinners, accommodation, insurance, and other personal expenses are catered by the participant

Certification

Participants will be issued with Skills for Africa Training Institute certificate upon completion of this course.

Airport Pickup and Accommodation

Airport pickup and accommodation is arranged upon request. For booking contact our Training Coordinator through Email: info@skillsforafrica.org, training@skillsforafrica.org Tel: +254 702 249 449

Terms of Payment: Unless otherwise agreed between the two parties’ payment of the course fee should be done 7 working days before commencement of the training.