Using Data Contracts as a Value Assessment Framework for Data or AI Initiatives

Before we talk about data contracts, or value frameworks, or any of the machinery around them, we need to ask a much ancient question: what is a contract, fundamentally?If we forget the tacticals like the YAML schemas, the tooling, the metadata registries, and the platform debates, a contract, at its irreducible core, is a promise with consequences. Nothing more. It says: I will give you this, in this form, by this time. And if I don’t, something happens. The consequence is what makes it a contract and not merely documentation.