Data Contracts

One of the benefits of data contracts is the amount of automation they unlock.

This could include platform capabilities such as:

Software engineers invest significantly to prevent bugs being deployed to production environments using techniques and tools such as:

When starting your data contracts implementation, plan for scale, but start small.

Build what you need to deliver value quickly, and only what you need.

The next two instalments of my data contracts workshop, in partnership with ​Soda​, have been announced. They are:

The quality of a decision increases directly proportional to the degree to which the person is responsible.

I wrote yesterday how using data contracts allows you to:

• Create a stable interface for the data, much like an API
• Automate the running and reporting of data quality checks
• Improve communication between those that create data and those that consume it

But doing that with data contracts isn’t just about building some tools. It requires a change in mindset.

Data contracts are a simple idea. You simply describe your data in a structured format.

One of our aims with data contracts was to move away from our existing Change Data Capture (CDC) architecture, where the entire database is synced to the data warehouse with exactly the same structure.

The goal of every data architecture has always been to provide accessible data to the organisation.

Data contracts help bring people together.

They increase the visibility of the what data you have, who is using it, and what for.