Data Contracts

Traditionally, data governance has been implemented using people and processes.

You establish standards. Define roles. Encourage greater communication.

I joined Ryan Collingwood and Lilly Ryan on the Thoughtworks Technology Podcast to talk about data contracts, what they are, and why they matter.

Data contracts are often viewed as part of a data mesh implementation, but you don’t need to be transforming to a data mesh architecture to benefit from data contracts.

You don’t need to run a big transformation project to start your adoption of data contracts.

If I want to use a dataset to build a critical data application, I need to make a decision on whether it meets my requirements.

This is part 5 and the final part in my Data Reliability series. You can read the rest of the series on my website.

What types of companies adopt data contracts?

As I’ve been starting on my consulting journey I’ve spoken to a lot of companies who are looking to implement data contracts.

Ben Watson at Nandos, a South African restaurant chain operating in 30 countries, has a great write up on their modern data platform with data mesh and data contracts.

I was at Confluent’s Data In Motion event in London yesterday and this quote by Tim Berglund in they keynote caught my attention:

When you start your adoption of data contracts, you want to start with the most critical datasets, because this is where you can add the most value.