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Vol. I · No. 251
Mon · 8 Jun
A Daily Lexicon of Trustworthy Data
The Lexicon

005·75

data contract

/ˈdeɪ.tə ˈkɒn.trækt/ - n.

1 [colloq.] A written agreement about what the source will send, honored until the source has a deadline.Keep. Punchy.This is the problem.

Working definition

2. An agreed, enforceable specification of the schema, semantics, and quality a data producer guarantees to consumers, versioned and tested at the pipeline boundary.

Promoted
Seen in the wild · 5
See also
  • data freshness slaA promise about how recent the data is, signed by no one and measured by whoever is annoyed first.
  • ingestionAccepting whatever a source sends, on the working theory that the schema it sent last week is the schema it will send today.
  • pipeline ownershipA field in the catalog set to the name of someone who left in March.
  • schema driftThe source renamed a column and told no one, in the same spirit it once promised the contract was stable.