TUTORIALS • 21 October 2002

META DATA TUTORIALS

Building and Managing the Meta Data Repository

David Marco President Enterprise Warehousing Solutions, Inc.

Building a meta data repository is an absolute requirement for corporations.  Companies have realised that without meta data their IT departments cannot manage their systems and their systems are not providing true value to the business end user.

This practical tutorial leverages the lessons learned from companies that have successfully deployed meta data repositories. The case studies demonstrate the importance of having a methodology for defining meta data requirements, capturing and integrating meta data, how to calculate ROI, form a team, and develop a project plan, advanced meta data architectures, pulse-of-the-market analysis of meta data integration tool vendors, methodology for defining an attainable project scope, and a detailed walkthrough of a detailed meta data model.

• Meta Data Fundamentals
• Technical and Business Meta Data
• How to Build a Successful Meta Data Repository
• Analyse the Current State of the Meta Data Industry
• Cutting through the meta data market hype
• Defining meta data
• Challenges of Implementing a Meta Data Repository
• Selling the Concept of Building a Meta Data Repository to Management Return on Investment (ROI)
• Identifying & Integrating Sources of Meta Data
• Creating the Meta Data Project Plan
• Constructing the Meta Data Scope Document
• Real-world analysis of meta data tool vendors
• Future Direction of Meta Data
• How to Define Measurable and Attainable Meta Data ROI
• ·Keys to Sound Meta Data Architecture
• Defining Meta Data Requirements
• Accessing the Meta Data Repository
• Meta Data Above and Beyond Data Warehousing
• Learn a Full Life-Cycle Methodology for Implementing a Meta Data Repository

XML for Data Managers - An Introduction

Peter Aiken Founding Director Institute for Data Research

XML represents a critical future direction for the management of metadata, data, business rules and will play an increasingly important role is business and systems engineering.  This seminar shows you how to quickly and easily start incorporating XML capabilities into your data management programs.

XML Basics
What XML is?  What XML is not?  How does it work as a meta-language? 

XML Usage
What business problems can XML solve? How it is being used by organisations to solve them and save money:  implementing e-business and B2B initiatives; evolving legacy applications; building XML-base application delivery

XML Architecture
How does XML work from an architectural perspective?  Overview of XML Architectural Components including: XML Elements; Attributes; Entities; DTDs, DOM, XSL, RDF, XLinks, XPointers

Advanced XML-based Data Management:  Engineering, Quality, EAI, Portals, and Metadata Recovery/ Management

Peter Aiken Founding Director Institute for Data Research

XML-based technologies permit new and more extensive integration possibilities and can be implemented with little or no change to the existing applications or data - the non-intrusive approach championed by industry expert, Rosemary H. Rock-Evans.  Those of us concerned with data challenges (such as delivery, integration, quality, interchange, etc.) are gaining access to advanced technologies allowing us to address these challenges in a programmatic manner using structured techniques.  The tutorial presents an overview of these possibilities including:

• How XML-based metadata engineering is required as we reconsider our approaches to data quality engineering and enterprise integration?
• Standardised delivery of organisational data via an XML-based portal provides a central point of integration.
• How the data group can develop and deliver complete information delivery solutions to organisational clients - solving forever the "what have you done for me lately" problem.

ABCs of Information Quality

Larry P. English President INFORMATION IMPACT International, Inc.

While organisations have for some time recognised the requirement for quality of products and services to be competitive, most are only now becoming aware of the problems in information quality and how poor information quality hurts both competitiveness and profits.  Information quality improvement is not an academic exercise-it is a required tool for business performance excellence in the Information Age.

In this tutorial Larry covers the fundamental principles of information quality. He describes how an organisation can improve the quality and value of its information resources.  He explains metrics for measuring information quality and management principles for implementing an effective information quality environment.  Larry demonstrates how organisations have successfully implemented information quality processes to improve the effectiveness of their business and information system processes.

Assessment: Information Quality Inspection

• What is information quality and why it is essential to business survival
• Information customers and information producers
• The information supply chain
• Metrics for information quality
• Processes for assessing business information quality
• Measuring the costs of poor information quality

• Applying quality management principles to the information products
• Quick wins and systemic improvements for information quality improvement and business effectiveness
• Process for information quality improvement

• Information quality maturity assessment
• How to start an information quality initiative
• Creating and sustaining change for business effectiveness through quality information

Roadmap For Building Quality BI Applications

Larissa Moss President Method Focus

As companies are moving at Internet speed into the information age, they face an ever-growing risk for making wrong strategic business decisions because of inaccessible and poor-quality information. In an attempt to quickly extract the business intelligence hidden in their vast amounts of operational data, companies are putting their faith into "silver bullet" technology solutions only to find themselves with the same problems on a new platform.

This tutorial will explain why "silver bullet" technology solutions, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Data Warehousing (DW), Analytic Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), have not worked for most companies. It will provide a set of critical success factors and suggest organisational changes, which are required to create an effective BI environment with clean, consistent, and integrated data across the entire organisation.

Why IT has not been able to eliminate IQ problems

• Root causes for current IT impairments
• Why technology "fixes" do not work

Critical success factors for BI applications

• Executive sponsorship
• Source data analysis
• Enterprise data architecture
• Meta data (business & technical)
• ETL staging and reconciliation

A roadmap for changing IT's development approach

• Application release approach
• Different incentive structure
• Changes to application development charge-back

Organisational changes

• Shifted roles and responsibilities
• New chief officer position
• BI program management

12 steps to implementing organisational changes.

Data Modelling - Essentials and Beyond

		Graeme Simsion Senior Fellow University of Melbourne
		Graham Witt Senior Consultant Tier Technologies

This is a joint tutorial by two of the most popular presenters at recent US DAMA conferences.

Graeme will take a fresh look at some of the fundamental issues in data modelling, in the light of today's information systems practices and challenges. Graham will focus on lessons of experience from the field, and a range of practical solutions to key issues. As always, Graeme and Graham will be relevant, forthright - and challenging.

The Essentials

Graeme's article "Data Modelling - Testing the Foundations" in Database Programming and Design five years ago drew record correspondence. Always controversial, his views on the nature of data modelling, the role of the data modeller, and the data modelling process will prompt you to re-examine your own assumptions.

Questions Graeme will address include

• Is data modelling analysis or design?
• Is creativity appropriate in data modelling?
• What should the data modelling process deliver?
• Do we need different models for different stages of the process?
• What are the respective responsibilities of data modeller and database designer?
• Why do enterprise data modelling initiatives so often fail?
• Is there a role for the specialist data modeller?

And Beyond - Lessons from Practice

This session will take a hard look at data modelling in practice: what works, what doesn't? Graham has spent the last 15 years as a data modelling and data management specialist, across a wide variety of business and government applications, and an equally wide variety of approaches. Delegates who have attended his previous sessions will know that he pulls no punches in evaluating techniques and tools. Expect a vigorous and stimulating discussion. Graham will look at:

• What can we do to improve the quality of information models?
• How can we improve business buy-in?
• Is the data modeller an endangered species?
• What makes a good data modeller?
• The meaning and role of Information and Data Architectures
• Object Class Hierarchies
• The role of Metaclass models
• Business information models vs database designs
• How is UML shaping up in practice?
•  Modelling the Data Warehouse
• XML: hype and reality 

Graham will also discuss a rigorous approach to validating models that he has used with success in recent assignments.

Half Day Tutorial
9:00-12:30

Developing Useful Use Cases - How to Avoid the "Useless" Case Phenomenon

Alec Sharp Clariteq Systems Consulting Ltd

The "use case" concept is appealingly simple - a "use case" describes a specific case in which an actor (generally, a "user") will use a system to receive value - and has generated enormous interest as a technique for discovering and documenting requirements. In practice, though, the results are mixed - some organisations have great success, while others decide that "useless cases" is a better term. One source of difficulty is that much of the available material on use cases:

• Is either theoretical or suitable only for small applications
• Concentrates on internal technical details
• Treats use cases as a "whole new thing" that sets aside techniques the business analyst already knows and uses.

This workshop will take a different and more pragmatic approach - it covers proven techniques for developing use cases, focuses on discovering and verifying the user's requirements, and puts use cases into context with other popular techniques like data or workflow modelling.

• Requirements definition - goals, issues, and how use cases help
• Use cases - essential elements, evolution, context, and fit with data modelling
• Techniques for discovering an application's use cases
• How to describe (document) use cases at "scope", "concept", and "detail" levels
• Improving use cases with use case scenarios
• Where to now? Interesting uses of use cases, and other techniques to explore
• Wrap up, pitfalls and how to avoid them, and key guidelines for success
• Why use cases don't imply an O-O approach
• The difference between use cases and use case scenarios, and how to develop and document each
• How use cases synergize with data modelling, workflow modeling, and other techniques

Everything You Need to Know About Web Services

Rick van der Lans Managing Director R20/Consultancy

The magic word in the IT industry is "web service". Everyone is talking about the SOAP, UDDI en WSDL. But can we already develop real-life systems with the technology? This tutorial gives a complete and realistic overview of the status of all the standards plus, more importantly, how well the products support those standards? Are we already able to develop mission-critical applications with them? Should we adopt the technology now, or should we wait?

In general, this tutorial discusses three main subjects: the standards, the tools, and the design rules. In the first part of the tutorial, all the relevant standards are discussed. That means, we don't stop after SOAP, UDDI and WSDL. WSIL, BTP, BPML and WSFL, the JAX Pack, ebXML, XLANG are discussed.

The second part focusses on the tools. There are tools the create and call web services, tools to wrap legacy code, tools to implement web services registries, we even have tools to wrap stored procedures as web services.  But how good are those products?

The third part deals with design rules. What are the lessons we have learned so far with developing web service-based systems. For example, should we design according to an outside-in or inside-out approach? What do the terms cohesion and coupling mean?

• standards for calling web services: SOAP, XML-RPC and ebXML MS
• web service transactions with BTP (atoms and cohesions)
• how to discover web services, with UDDI, WSIL, and the ebXML registry
• overview of middleware vendors, including Bea Systems, CapeClear, Grand Central and Iona
• two platforms for deploying web services: .NET and J2EE
• rules for designing web services
• the battle of the choreography languages: BPML, WSFL, WSCL, or XLANG
• the future of web services

Common Data Architecture - Sharing a High-Quality Data Resource

Michael Brackett Consulting Data Architect Data Resource Design & Remodeling President DAMA International

The data resource in most public and private sector organisations has been developed over a period of many years through a variety of different concepts and techniques. The disparity is continuing to increase and the quality is continuing to decrease. The result is a data resource that is failing to meet the ever-growing and ever-changing information needs of the organisation. If this trend continues an organisation will fail to be fully successful due to information deprivation.

There are many techniques, tools, and standards that claim to take control of the data resource, resolve existing data disparity, and improve data resource quality. Many of these approaches are simply the current wave of silver bullets that will not substantially resolve data disparity or improve data resource quality. The only real solution is to implement an enterprise-wide common data architecture within which all data can be thoroughly understood, formally managed, and fully utilised. This tutorial will cover the concepts, principles, and techniques of a common data architecture, how a common data architecture can be developed, how data are understood within that architecture, how further data disparity is prevented, how data can be integrated, how existing data disparity is resolved, how a high-quality data resource developed, and how data can be readily shared to support an organisations business information demand.

From Enterprise Data Models to Dimensional Models: A Structured Method for Data Warehouse and Data Mart Design

Daniel Moody Assoc. Professor Norwegian University of Science & Technology

This tutorial presents a method for designing data warehouses and data marts based on a common enterprise data model. It defines a step-by-step approach for developing an enterprise data model from production sources using a "lowest common denominator" approach.

This is then used to design the central data warehouse ("wholesale" distribution point) and data marts ("retail" stores). Compared to conventional design methods, this provides a more structured approach and allows data warehouses and data marts to be developed in an architected manner. This session explodes the popular "myth" that traditional Entity Relationship modelling and dimensional modelling are fundamentally different and somehow incompatible. It shows that ER models provide the basis for developing dimensional models and there is quite a straightforward mapping between the two. A major objective of this session is to provide a "bridge" between traditional ER modelling and dimensional modelling, to makes it easier for people trained in traditional database design techniques to learn data warehouse design. This is a "hands on" session in which participants will apply the method to a number of real life examples, taken from retailing, banking, health and law enforcement.

Enterprise Architecture: Value Proposition

John Zachman President Zachman International

John A. Zachman is the originator of the 'Framework for Enterprise Architecture', which has received broad acceptance around the world as an integrative framework or 'periodic table' of descriptive representations of Enterprises. He has been focusing on information strategy and architecture since 1970 and has written a number of articles on those subjects. John is retired from IBM, having served them for 26 years. He is Chief Executive Officer of the Zachman Institute for Framework Advancement (ZIFA), an organisation dedicated to advancing the conceptual and implementation states of the art in Enterprise Architecture. He also operates his own education and consulting business, Zachman International.