Data Contract

Definitions

1. A formal agreement between data producers and consumers that defines the schema, semantics, quality expectations, SLAs, and ownership of a data asset. Like API contracts for data — producers commit to not breaking the schema, and consumers know what to expect. Enforced through automated validation.

   In plain English: A promise between teams about what data will look like — its format, quality, and update schedule.

   Example: "The data contract guarantees that the orders table will always have a non-null customer_id and the timestamp will be UTC."

Related Terms

• Binary
• Consume
• Contract
• EHR
• Data Lineage
• Training Data Licensing
• Dark Data
• Data Governance