What is backward compatibility of data sources?

< 1 min read

Backward compatibility means source system changes do not break existing reports or pipelines.
New updates should still support old column names or formats.
In my project, API introduced new fields but kept existing response structure.
So Power BI dataset refreshed without any modification.
If columns are renamed without compatibility, refresh failures occur.
We used views in SQL to maintain old schema for reports.
Staging layer mapped new fields to old business names.
This avoided rework across multiple dashboards.
Users continued seeing same metrics despite backend upgrade.
So backward compatibility protects reporting continuity during system changes.

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