As promised during my recent presentation at Data Rage2, I've uploaded a checklist with more details about the 5 steps for Inheriting a data model successfully.

Checklist

I hope you enjoyed the presentation.  While you are downloading the checklist, be sure to check out our other presentation handouts via that same link above.  If you have additions to this checklist, post them in the comments and I'll update the checklist.

Just got this notification via Embarcadero and I thought I'd share it with you because:

1. It's FREE
2. It is a Data-focused conference
3. It's Online
4. I'm speaking!

I'll be speaking on You Just Inherited a Data Model: NOW WHAT?

Technical Session #6
Tuesday 25 May 2010 11:00am - 11:45am PDT

You’ve Just Inherited a Data Model: Now What?
The good news is that someone else has done the hard work of architecting a data model and you just have to take on minor maintenance…or is that the bad news? Learn the 5 steps you MUST take before working with a new data model.

Karen Lopez - InfoAdvisors

Information from Embarcadero:

What's DataRage?
DataRage is three days of 100% online technical sessions you can attend from wherever you like to log in. It’s bringing top industry speakers, technologists, and industry practitioners to present on a wide variety of database-related topics, a raging confluence of conveniently-delivered information you can’t get anywhere else. And it’s free!

DataRage is designed for you. It features both advanced and introductory education and training sessions from leading experts to help you with the latest thinking and tips on:

• Data modeling and database design techniques
• SQL optimization strategies
• Database change management processes
• Productivity tips & tricks with industry leading products
• ER/Studio®, DBArtisan®, DB Optimizer, Rapid SQL®
• …And more!

Why DataRage?
There’s so much you have to know, so much you have to do, and you’re constantly being challenged to keep up with less – less time, less money, less training, and even less staff. DataRage strips away the marketing and serves up meaty, real-world technical sessions designed to provide you with information you can put to work immediately in your environment. And DataRage delivers it to you in the most efficient manner possible – online. Attend the live sessions and interact with session leaders and your peers, or if you miss a session, you can return any time for an on-demand version at your convenience.

Who Should Attend?
DBAs, data architects, SQL developers. If you’re responsible for data modeling, administration, availability, change management, or performance optimization, DataRage is the event for you. And at DataRage, you can connect—virtually— with hundreds or even thousands of others who are working to solve some of the same issues as you.

Sounds good! Tell me more…
Click here to see the comprehensive schedule of training classes and register for this event today!

Note that this conference is delivered via LiveMeeting and you need a headset or speakers to listen in.  There won't be a call-in number, only audio over LiveMeeting, so come prepared. You'll need to pre-register (did I mention that it was free?) to get the session information.

I hope to see you there, virtually.  I'll also be live-tweeting some of the sessions, so you can follow me at @datachick for my commentary and observations.

A Guardian article by Peter Walker covers new research on the quantity of sleep one gets and premature death:

'unequivocal' link between lack of sleep and increased risk of premature death

The research, by academics in the UK and Italy, analysed data from 16 separate studies across Europe, the US and Asia over 25 years, covering more than 1.3m people and more than 100,000 deaths.

It found that those who generally slept for less than six hours a night were 12% more likely to experience a premature death over a period of 25 years than those who consistently got six to eight hours' sleep. Evidence for the link was unequivocal, the researchers concluded.

I'm winding down on a project that required many missed hours of sleep over the last few months and I am now feeling the negative impact on my health.  The chronic lack of sleep, poor diet choices, missed exercise schedules and the compounding impact of stress has made me realize that I can't keep making the choices to allow this to happen.

Andy Leonard (@AndyLeonard) shared a link to Alan Skorkin's blog post Did Your Boss Thank You For Coding Yourself to Death?.  Alan makes a great case for not pulling death march efforts on behalf of your projects.  While he discusses the coding activities of a project, I find that data architecture efforts are usually under just as much pressure, if not more, to meet externally set deadlines.

I can see the necessity of occasionally putting in some extra effort and burning the midnight oil at work for a day or two. But when "occasionally" turns to "often", when your boss stops thanking you profusely for your efforts and just treats it as norm, this is when we're all in trouble. It sets bad expectations, not just for you, for the whole industry.

As a project manager, I find myself sometimes forgetting to acknowledge extra efforts put in by team members once it becomes the "norm" for a project.  That's terrible and I'm committing today to make sure that I recognize and reward extra effort.  Showing up to work is not normally extra effort, but working 12 hours straight to get DDL generated or to get code deployed is, even if management sees it as just what is required to meet outrageous deadlines.

I leave you with three homework assignments today:

1. Thank a family member who has been forced to take up your slack when you've been putting in extra hours to meet a project deadline.
2. Thank your team members for putting in extra effort
3. Do a checkpoint on your own balance – have you found the right point of meeting project ebbs and flows and taking care of yourself?

One of my favourite quotes from Alice in Wonderland:

Now! Now!” cried the Queen. “Faster! Faster!”

And then they went so fast that at last they seemed to skim through the air, hardly touching the ground with their feet, till suddenly, just as Alice was getting quite exhausted, they stopped, and she found herself sitting on the ground, breathless and giddy.

The Queen propped her up against a tree and said kindly, “You may rest a little now.”

Alice looked around her in great surprise. “Why, I do believe we’ve been under this tree the whole time! Everything’s just as it was!”

“Of course it is,” said the Queen. “What would you have it?”

“Well in our country,” said Alice still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else—if you ran very fast for a long time as we’ve been doing.”

“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else you must run at least twice as fast as that!”

-- Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, Carroll, 1872

Don't you have days that feel like this?  I'm having one today…

I just received this news from Steve Hoberman:

The DAMA Guide to the Data Management Body of Knowledge (DAMA-DMBOK) Print Edition is now available!

Written by over 120 data management practitioners, the DAMA Guide to the Data Management Body of Knowledge (DAMA-DMBOK) is the most impressive compilation of data management principles and best practices, ever assembled. It provides data management and IT professionals, executives, knowledge workers, educators, and researchers with a framework to manage their data and mature their information infrastructure.

Last year the electronic version of DAMA-DMBOK was released on CD-ROM (ISBN 9780977140084).

Due to high demand we have recently released this same version of DAMA-DMBOK in print (ISBN 9781935504023).

The DAMA-DMBOK Print Edition retails for $74.95 and is available through Amazon.com as well as through the publisher's website, Technics Publications.

Technics Publications will continue to offer the discounted price of $74.95 (plus $5 shipping to anywhere in the world) for purchasing both the DAMA-DMBOK CD-ROM  and the DAMA Dictionary of Data Management CD-ROM (ISBN 9780977140046).

Also enterprise server versions are available from Technics Publications. These versions allow anyone with authorized access to your network to use DAMA-DMBOK and/or the DAMA Dictionary.

A body of knowledge represents the concepts that a person practicing in a profession must know, understand, use, and support.  If you are a data management professional, this is a must for your bookshelf. 

If your organization is applying data management concepts, then this is a must for the corporate library as well, even if that library is also your bookshelf.  The availability of an enterprise server version is a great addition to the offerings.

Davide Haertzen has written a great overview of the guide over on Information Management