Blog: Jill Dyche

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Highlights from DAMA 2007

In which Jill drinks Guinness in Boston and brazenly addresses a large crowd the following morning with only minimal word-slurring.

The Wilshire DAMA International Symposium has come and gone and it was a content-rich and fun-filled extravaganza. In fact there was SO much meaty stuff I couldn’t get to it all, but here are some of what I thought were highlights:

1) The Monday night Welcome Reception was the ballroom version of an Irish pub, complete with Irish music, a dartboard, and an authentic mirrored wood bar! Having been to the actual Guinness brewery in Dublin, I must say that the Guinness on draft held up quite nicely, as did most—but not all—of those of us who imbibed. Evan and I had to peel ourselves away from our pints long enough to sign books for attendees. Cheers to the Wilshire folks and the DataFlux team for once again turning out quite a crowd!

2) I caught the morning piece of Malcolm Chisolm’s daylong “Mastering Master Data” presentation. I’ve decided that people’s perspectives on master data management are largely informed by their incumbent expertise. The factions include data warehouse MDM people, the infrastructure MDM people, the SOA MDM people, etc. Malcolm, best known for his acclaimed data modeling talks at DAMA and elsewhere, approaches master data from the data architecture side, having clearly seen the dramas first-hand. Good thing, too, as companies are learning that a flexible, business-driven data model is one of the lynchpins of MDM success, and that data governance and management are critical components. Malcolm drove these points home with experience-based content, and did a credible job supporting the questions of an energetic and engaged audience.

3) Fernando Martinez-Campos delivered a case-study laden talk on business requirements best practices. His from-the-trenches examples showed why the business requirements process transcends facilitated sessions and data models, and should in fact leverage structured techniques and the new crop of requirements-enabling tools. Fernando’s talk was held in one of the larger rooms, and it was full. The after-talk questions confirmed that the data crowd rightly sees business requirements gathering as an opportunity to cement their alignment with the business side.

4) I popped in on John Zachman and he’s as effective as ever. In my opinion, Zachman doesn’t get enough credit for being one of the first to call out data as a separate category. Though he didn’t employ the vocabulary, he was advocating the data-as-asset principle before the rest of us piled on. “I’ve relied on the Zachman Framework for several years,” says my friend Barbara Turner from United Health’s Uniprise division. “It provides a structured, logical approach for identifying relationships. In the process of trying to make order from chaos, John’s message was more relevant than ever. His enthusiasm and passion kept me on the edge of my seat!”

5) Can’t vouch for the attendees, but my keynote was a personal highlight. My topic was “5 New Trends in Data Management.” (For those of you who missed it, here’s a nice review from TechTarget, courtesy of Hannah Smalltree.) The vast auditorium reportedly held 1000 people but it seemed like more from way up there. Data experts from companies like MetLife, Amgen, GMAC, EDS, and Allstate stuck around after the keynote to share thoughts and success stories, giving further credence to my suspicion that the data people really do get it.

If anyone deserves a pint of Guinness, it’s Tony Shaw, Eric Franzon, and their solid crew from Wilshire Conferences. These guys were constantly on the go, making the entire event seamlessly organized, while chatting up attendees and collecting content ideas for upcoming events. Thanks to Wilshire and the DAMA board for giving me a forum to share some of the new trends in data management, and to all the attendees who contributed to another stellar DAMA International event!

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