Daily data contracts tips

In 2002 Jeff Bezos issued the now infamous API Mandate which stated the following:

Every workflow and process you have has a cost, including the following:

I wrote yesterday how it’s best to validate as early as possible.

It’s always best to do your data validation as early as possible as that:

As a software engineer, we would never make our database directly available to consumers.

The 98/2 rule as described in the Farnam Street newsletter back in July has really stuck with me:

I see data contracts as being at the cross-section of best practices.

I mentioned yesterday how by using friction we can influence how users behave and how the business is organised.

Yesterday I wrote about Conway’s law and the challenges it causes in organisations where data teams are placed in a separate part of the organisation to where the data is generated.

Conway’s law asserts that the designs of systems are influenced by an organisation’s communication structure, suggesting that how teams are organised and communicate will reflect in the final product.