Data Contracts: Anchoring Reliability in Model-Driven Data Engineering

Defining promises between producers & consumers so our pipelines, historization, and models become trustworthy, evolvable, and business-friendly

Summary

Data contracts are formal, enforced agreements between data producers and consumers that specify schema, semantics, quality, and change expectations.

In our architecture with dual/bi-temporal SCD2 and business-aligned 3NF models, contracts help ensure consistency, prevent downstream breakage, and make exposure views reliable.

Implementation involves embedding contracts in metadata, enforcing them via tests or CI/CD, setting ownership, and monitoring violations.

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What Are Data Contracts?

A data contract refers to a specification (or agreement) that defines what a data product promises to deliver. Think of it like an API contract in software: it says this table or view will always include certain columns, with specific types and constraints; it sets rules around freshness, backward compatibility, and acceptable change.

Some of the key components often include: