14 July 2026 · 6 min read
How to spot event drift before reports break
A field guide to detecting quiet changes in names, payloads and source behaviour.
Drift is a production behaviour
A tracking plan describes intent; your event stream records reality. Compare both after meaningful releases, watching for new nulls, changed types, missing properties and unexpected volume shifts.
Start with decisions, not every event
Prioritise events that support a customer journey, regulated choice or operational KPI. Set expected schemas and thresholds, then route exceptions to a named owner with release context.