Data Contracts: Who Signs the Schema?

Data gets treated like plumbing until a mismatch breaks a process, a report, or a customer experience. In this episode Mirko Peters unpacks the idea of a data contract: a short, practical agreement that captures business intent, validation rules, ownership, SLAs and change processes for any shared dataset or API. You’ll hear why business leaders must state the decisions they expect the data to support, and why engineers need precise shape, quality and lifecycle rules before they integrate. The episode walks through typical misunderstandings, the operational costs of undocumented expectations, and a consulting‑style example where ambiguous data caused months of rework. Listeners get clear, actionable ways to create lightweight data contracts that reduce rework, speed integrations, and create accountable ownership without heavy governance. This is about reducing repeated clarification loops with a small set of high‑value artifacts — not about new tools or more committees.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/business-it-it-business--6867401/support.To continue the conversation, follow Mirko Peters on LinkedIn, where more insights and real-world examples are shared from both business and IT perspectives.