The data contract captures contextual information

The problem with using data isn’t usually finding it - data catalogs can surface that data.

It isn’t usually about accessing the data - in many organisations data access is quite lax (often too lax).

It’s about having the contextual information you need to use that data:

• Is this the right dataset to use for customers?
• Which of these different dates should I use for aggregating?
• Will this structure change, and if so, when and how?
• How often is this dataset updated?
• Who owns this data?

And so on.

The contextual information is best populated by the producer of the data, because they have the full context.

The data contract captures that contextual information.