Does data contracts require support from the top?

It can be tempting to view data contracts as a large program that requires support from the top of the organisation to be successful.

However, I think you can start without support from “the top”, and that’s what I did.

You start small with teams who you already have good relationships with and/or have a good understanding of the value of the data they are providing to the business, and use that to prove the concept.

As part of that, you may need to build some minimal tooling to support the PoC - but you shouldn’t need too much.

Once completed, you can use some data that shows the success of that PoC, for example fewer incidents, reduced costs, etc.

If all of that goes well, that success can lead to the next one, and so on.

And eventually, people at the top will start noticing. They can then help ensuring the incentives are aligned so producers understand the benefits and accept the responsibility.

How those incentives are aligned will depend on the organisation, but it will be the same as whatever your organisation uses to get teams aligned and working together to provide greater value for the organisation. So, things like quarterly planning, KPIs, OKRs, etc.

Then you just keep going, identifying where data contracts can help, iterating on the tooling, and delivering value as you go.