A final capability that is emerging is the establishment of formal data contracts between data owners and data consumers and integrates each of the key capabilities described in our previous blogs.
A data contract is an agreement that specifies data owner accountability regarding data delivery acceptability levels, as well as the consequences and expectations for a response when delivery issues are identified.
A data contract is an agreement that typically covers three key areas:
- Contract scope,
- Contract commitments
- Contract monitoring.
The contract scope defines the scope, parties to the contract (i.e., data owner and data consumer), authoritative sources, data flows (feeds and files identified within data lineage), and critical data attributes.
While the contract is an agreement between data owner and consumer, the consumer’s business needs are often overlooked, which leads to data deliveries that are not fit for purpose. The contract commitments will provide transparency to the operating and service level agreements, controls, and data quality rules covered by the contract.
Finally, the contract monitoring component will provide functionality to create scorecards and publish actionable results that will enable producers/consumers to resolve data delivery issues. The contract will have limited value unless consequences are explicitly defined for not meeting expectations around timeliness, accuracy or completeness.
In our next blog we will explore data quality improvement and how it is key to successful data governance.
We recently published a guide that explores the building blocks (i.e., data governance components) of data governance, which can help drive better business decisions, enhance regulatory compliance, and improve risk management. You can download it here.
