Data contracts as part of the workflow

Data contracts, like any documentation or specification, will only be kept updated if they are part of the workflow.

That’s why it’s so important to know who will be owning and updating the data contract when designing the implementation.

Is it going to be software engineers? Allow them to define the data contract in code, alongside the rest of their code, and managed using the same source control.

Is it going to be data engineers? Extend the dbt model config to hold the extra metadata you need for your data contracts.

Is it going to be a Salesforce admin? Provide a custom UI that interacts with the Salesforce API so they can add the extra metadata and verify the changes they have made to Salesforce.

Whatever it is, ensure data contracts are part of the workflow.