POST CONFERENCE FULL DAY TUTORIALS • 10 November 2005

Managed Meta Data Environment Full Life-Cycle Roadmap
David Marco, President, EWSolutions

Effective enterprise meta data management is no longer an option, but an absolute requirement for corporations and government agencies. Companies have realized that without meta data their information technology (IT) departments cannot manage their applications and their systems are not providing true value to the business end user. Organizations are implementing managed meta data environments (MME) to provide them an enterprise meta data management solution that addresses the challenges of:

• Bloated IT portfolios
• Incorrect decision making
• Redundant data
• Lack of actionable information
• Drawn out application development life-cycles

This practical course leverages the lessons learned from companies that have successfully deployed MMEs. The case studies demonstrate the importance of having a methodology for defining meta data requirements, capturing and integrating meta data, MME architectural components, how to calculate ROI, and develop a project plan, advanced meta data architectures and pulse-of-the-market analysis of meta data integration tool vendors. You will learn:

• Six Architectural Components of the Managed Meta Data Environment (MME)
  • Meta Data Extraction Layer
  • Meta Data Integration Layer
  • Meta Data Repository
  • Meta Data Management Layer
  • Meta Data Marts
  • Meta Data Delivery Layer
• Real-World MME Case Studies
• Analyze Meta Data Tool Vendors
• Developing a MME Architecture
• MME Architectural Approaches
• MME ROI
• How to Sell a MME Project to Business Executives

Featured Speaker:

David Marco President EWSolutions

Developing an Information Quality Plan: “Where Do I Go From Here?”
Larry P. English, President, Information Impact International, Inc.

With all of the new ideas you’ve gained at the IQ Conference, you may be overwhelmed as to where to start when you get back. This workshop session is designed to help identify your next steps, with a plan to successfully implement those next steps and ensure success. This workshop helps you increase the effectiveness of the next steps of your information quality initiative, whether that is implementing quality in a data warehouse, in CRM, creating an IQ organization, or measuring information quality.

You learn the critical ingredients of culture change required to facilitate paradigm-shift organizational and culture changes.

In this workshop session you will work in teams to identify strategies and tactics to increase the effectiveness of your information quality initiative. Learn how to increase the awareness of your potential sponsors, educate them and increase their active involvement in your information quality initiative.

Upon completion of this seminar, you will be able to:

• List and define the next steps your organization needs to implement your information quality initiative
• Describe the essential ingredients of successful change facilitation
• Identify the critical success factors required for effective implementation
• Identify implementation-threatening barriers and obstacles
• Identify tactics and techniques to overcome those barriers and obstacles for success

Featured Speaker:

Larry P English President Information Impact International

Being Right isn't Enough: A Crash Course in Consulting Skills
Graeme Simsion, Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne

It's not the technical problems that beat us. It's the soft stuff: getting into the client's head, selling our solutions, managing expectations, getting stakeholders to cooperate, writing reports... In the broadest sense, these are consulting skills, and most of us don't spend enough time on them.

Graeme Simsion’s half-day session on this topic last year was so well received that we’ve asked him to present the full-day version. Graeme is best known in the data management community as an authority on data modeling and data management - but he also spent 20 years building and managing a successful consultancy. Graeme ultimately managed some 70 professional staff, and has continued to consult in his own right.

The workshop has been designed to meet the need of internal consultants but external consultants have also found it valuable. Using a mixture of exercises, case-studies and practical tips, Graeme will cover some of the most important techniques for getting your ideas implemented, and your value recognised.

• Understanding the consulting role
• Setting and managing expectations
• Keeping the assignment on track
• Connecting with business managers
• Dealing with difficult people and situations
• Recognising common traps and warning signs
• Writing effective reports
• Building long-term relationships

Featured Speaker:

Graeme Simsion Senior Fellow University of Melbourne

Full Day Tutorial
09:00-16:30

Skills for the Advanced Data Modeler – Honing Your Techniques
Alec Sharp, Consultant, Clariteq Systems Consulting Ltd.

Somehow, good data modelers develop accurate and stable products, often in non-typical or high-pressure situations. They get the job done without wasted effort, maintain the involvement and respect of the subject matter experts, and – worst of all! –make it look easy. Other modelers fare poorly, maintaining tense relationships with content experts and developers who “just don’t get it,” and watching in dismay as their models are continually undone by “new” requirements.

What accounts for the difference? Magic? Genetics? Luck? No – it’s having a concrete set of frameworks, methods, techniques, scripts, heuristics, and other tools that they draw on to keep the process moving. And that’s what we’ll cover in this full, but fun, one-day session.

Over the years, Alec has delivered hundreds of Data Modeling and Advanced Data Modeling workshops, and many top-rated presentations at DAMA conferences, including “The Seven Deadly Sins of Data Modeling,” “Data Modeling – New Uses for New Times,” “Zen and the Art of Data Modeling,” and “The Human Side of Data Modeling. This “best of” presentation covers the points that participants have continually rated as the most concrete and useful.

Broadly speaking, there are five major themes:

1. "Pure" data modeling topics, including:

• contextual, conceptual, and logical models – what they are and what they’re for
• modeling of complex rules and associations
• the pluses and pitfalls of generalization
• modeling history and corrections, and supporting “as-of” queries

2. Using other analysis techniques in support of data modeling

• Event analysis as a rapid way to gather requirements
• Process modeling in and it’s role in data modeling
• Use Case and Service specification and their role in data modeling

3. Using data modeling with packaged applications

• Selecting and configuring packages
• “Why do we hate this application and what should we do with it?”
• Dealing with applications “chosen by decree”

4. Communication and other human factors

• Doing data modeling without calling it that
• Facilitation essentials
• Techniques for conducting data model review presentations
• Seven human factors to keep in mind

5. Interesting topics and uses of data modeling

• The emergence of “forensic data modeling”
• Dealing with the “E-R vs. Dimensional” divide
• The seven deadly sins of data modeling

Throughout the day, to ensure that it isn’t “all talk, no action,” short case studies will be addressed by the participants.

Featured Speaker:

Alec Sharp Consultant Clariteq Systems Consulting Ltd.