Data Contracts

Chapter 4. An Introduction to Data Contracts

The previous three chapters focused heavily on the why of data contracts and the problem statement that data contracts aims to solve. Starting in Chapter 4, we shift to defining what exactly the data contract architecture is and what its workflow looks like. This chapter will serve as the theoretical foundation before transitioning into discussing real-world implementations in Chapter 5 and implementing it yourself in Chapters 6 and 7. In addition to the theoretical foundation, we will also discuss the key stakeholders and workflows when utilizing data contracts.

Collaboration Is Different in Data

Depending on who you ask, “collaboration” could be either a nebulous executive buzzword or a vague and lofty promise about improving the relationships between team members who already have quite a bit of work to do.

For the purposes of this book, our definition of technical collaboration is the following: “Collaboration refers to a form of distributed development where multiple individuals and teams, regardless of their location, can contribute to a project efficiently and effectively.”

Teams may collaborate online or offline, and with comprehensive working models or not. The goal of collaboration is to increase the quality of software development through human-in-the-loop review and continuous improvement.

In the modern technology ecosystem, there are many components to collaboration that have become part of the standard developer lifecycle ...