Make the data contract useful

Unless the data contract is being used, no one is going to put effort into creating or maintaining it.

It will just be another document that will fall out of date.

So, make the data contract useful.

For example:

• Use the data contract to create and manage the interface (e.g. the table in your data warehouse)
• Use the data contract to alert the right people to data quality issues
• Use the data contract to define and apply access controls

If it’s useful, and adding value, people will put effort into the data contract.