by Rob Drysdale, InfoAdvisors

I've been seeing a lot of articles and blog posts about the relationship between the business and IT.  Last year while attending Enterprise Data World it was interesting how many people were talking about how dysfunctional their relationships are with the business.  So it got me to thinking that we should put more of an emphasis on it and talk about it.  So I'm speaking about it at EDW 2010 in my session on Sunday, March 14th.  I've called it "Getting What You Deserve: 7 Steps to Gain Respect in Your Organization".  But I've noticed that there are other topics and discussions around this and I think that's great because it's so important.  In particular, I noticed that Graeme Simsion will be talking about "What The Business Wants" during a keynote session.

We all need to think about the relationships we have at work and what are we doing about them to make them better.  I think too much energy and effort is wasted because both sides aren't working in harmony.  This is just a quick post to put the topic out there, but I'll be doing a couple of blog posts in the next few days about where I think some of the problems are and what we can be doing about it.

We're looking forward to seeing everyone at EDW 2010 next week in San Francisco.

Brian Aker of MySQL fame gave a 10 minute lighting talk about about the NoSQL movement at the Nov 2009 OpenSQLCamp in Portland, OR.

If you have not heard the term NoSQL, you might want to peruse these articles first to catch up on the lingo:

NoSQL on Wikipedia

MapReduce on Wikipedia

ACID on Wikipedia

And just so that you know, NoSQL isn’t really about SQL, but about non-relational databases.

Brian Aker on NoSQL

If you’d like to see the slides better, they are available here:

As I hear more about NoSQL, I know that there are some great thoughts there, for certain types of data storage needs. So I’m not anti-NoSQL (I believe that’s a double negative). I’m hoping to chat about NoSQL ideas at Enterprise Data World next week.

I received this notification recently from my friend Gord Everest.  It’s a bit late in posting (the first class was last week), but it’s good to know that advanced courses are making their way online.

 

 

Finally, the premier course in database design at the University of Minnesota is available online to the IT/IS professional community.

If you are a practicing (or aspiring) data architect/modeling professional, you owe it to yourself to check into this educational opportunity.  Both new students and experienced working professionals have found this course to be very worthwhile.  It can be a real boost to your career.  Students report back that they soon became a recognized expert to whom other data modelers would come for help.  They are able to recognize poorly designed databases, and to develop good conceptual data models (a stage before ER/Relational modeling).  The course also covers how to conduct database design project meetings, and present data models to business users so they can understand them.

The course consists of 15 weekly lectures of 2 credit hours each, along with practical design exercises/assignments and quizzes.  It is actually recorded in conjunction with a face-to-face class.  Unlike more traditional online courses or webinars, here the online delivery results in a more effective and engaging learning experience.  Being able to view the lectures anywhere online at work or at home gives you considerable flexibility in arranging your schedule each week.

Taught by Dr. Gordon Everest, this course has been well received by students and data management professionals alike.  Student ratings are consistently high. The concepts and techniques are difficult to learn by reading a book alone.  The class first solidifies your understanding of the traditional ER/Relational database design approach.  Then you learn a much better way to do data modeling using Object Role Modeling (ORM).

The course begins 2010 January 21 and runs for 15 weeks in lock step with the live course. For further information go to: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~geverest/DModCourse.html

There you will find details of costs, how to register; course conduct, content, and schedule; the instructor bio; readings list; and information about the approach to online delivery.  For any questions, send an email to:  geverest@umn.edu .

FOR DAMA:

If you are planning to be at the DAMA Enterprise Data World conference March 14-18, you will have an opportunity to hear Dr. Everest conduct a workshop entitled “Normalization: the Achilles heel of Data Modeling.”

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-- Gordon Everest - Visit my new website:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~geverest
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Gordon C. Everest, Professor Emeritus and Adjunct
Database- Design, Administration, and Management
University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management

I work really hard when I present to business users to avoid the normal IT bafflegab / dujamakicey lingo, but I know that we struggle with this.

When I present at groups like DAMA (dama.org) , I sometimes get feedback that I’ve used a term, such as ERD or LDM that might not be clearly understood by everyone in the crowd.  This is a tough call, as I want to make some assumptions about the audience at DAMA meetings so as to balance time allotted against the desire to deliver content that is useful for data architects.  It’s very painful to have a presenter speak at a DAMA or IRMAC meeting and have him spend half the time explaining what a database is and what a data model is.

So while I do encourage attendees to ask if I use a term or concept that is unfamiliar to them, most won’t ask.

Remember to watch your turbo encabulators when collaborating with others.  We are all guilty of this.

Thanks to @ldbjorh for the link to this video.

Another video clip from Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.

I’ve worked with people who spend time with business users and can only hear “Red, Green Blue, Yellow, White. Check” after business rules have been explained many times.  It’s no wonder business people think that we don’t listen.

Models are such a great resource for the business because we can show them that we heard what they said.  Or that we didn’t.  At least that issue comes up much earlier.