What is a data contract?

We’ll start by defining what a data contract is and break down that definition to explore the key principles that make up a data contract. Having an agreed definition will then allow us to understand how data contracts solve the problems we described in Chapter 1, A Brief History of Data Platforms, and give us the foundations we need in the later chapters as we look at exactly how to build and deploy an architecture built on data contracts – one that ultimately changes our data culture and allows us to extract the most business value from our data.

So, let’s start with a definition. I define a data contract as follows:

A data contract is an agreed interface between the generators of data and its consumers. It sets the expectations around that data, defines how it should be governed, and facilitates the explicit generation of quality data that meets the business requirements.

Those four keywords highlighted are the four key principles...