DAMA INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM and WILSHIRE META-DATA CONFERENCE
April 28-May 2, 2002 – San Antonio Convention Center, San Antonio, Texas
Agenda is subject to change.    

NIGHT SCHOOL SESSIONS

Sunday, April 28, 2002
7:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Introduction to XML-based Portals

Peter Aiken
Founding Director, Data Research Institute
Virginia Commonwealth University 

Portals can be effective and efficient information delivery vehicles for organizations to employ.  However because XML-based portals are based on some of the most promising integration technologies, they are of particular interest to information managers.  Of most importance, they represent a single technology that can be deployed to handle the majority of current and future information delivery needs in a manner that can easily be demonstrated to be cost effective.  Combined with an XML-enabled environment, information managers are able to deliver personalized information to knowledge workers with a 10X reduction in time, money, and effort - when compared with more traditional approaches.  In many instances this business values is delivered virtually without significant programming requirements.

Peter Aiken is the founding director of the Institute for Data Research and an Associate Professor of Information Systems at Virginia Commonwealth University.  He has more than 20 years of business/information technology experience.  Between 1989-1993 he was the Director of a research laboratory at George Mason University where he supervised research into systems and requirements engineering.  In 1992 he was recruited by the Department of Defense to work in the Center for Information Management's (CIM) Information Engineering Directorate.  From 1992-1997 he held the position of Computer Scientist, most recently with the Office of the CIO.  At CIM, he directed a multimillion-dollar DoD-wide reverse engineering program aimed at recovering data architectures.  He also participated in the development of a DoD-wide strategic level data model and data engineering efforts.  He has assisted a number of organizations with their data management strategies and systems initiatives.  These results have been reported in publications ranging from the Communications of the ACM to the IBM Systems Journal to Information WEEK and five books including Data Reverse Engineering and (with Clive Finkelstein) Building Corporate Portals Using XML (McGraw-Hill 1996/99).  Dr. Aiken's achievements have resulted in recognition in Who's Who in Science and Engineering, Who's Who in American Education and other biographical compilations.  He is the recipient of the 2001 DAMA International Achievement Award (with Ted Codd).  His clear and concise presentation style make him a sought after speaker and he has spoken at foreign and domestic conferences and events. 

The Process of Process Modeling

Thom Harrington 
Systems Analyst
SAFECO Corporation

Process analysis, as an approach to system design, complements data analysis and helps assure a user perspective to the final product. Take a look at the Zachman framework: column two, rows one and two – it’s all about understanding and documenting the business processes.

Too often we rely solely on data analysis – making a lateral move in row three of the Zachman Framework from data analysis in column one to system design in column two – bypassing process analysis altogether.   While data analysis is an excellent tool for understanding data relationships, it falls short in helping to understand data usage. Process analysis fills the gap and is key to designing systems that meet today’s demands for operational efficiency. 

Topics covered in the presentation include:
o Terms, definitions & jargon
o “As is” versus “to be” models
o Roles & responsibilities – getting the right people involved
o Model components
o Building a process model
o Now you’ve got your model, so what!

Thom Harrington has eight years IT experience. His focus is process design and improvement; current assignments include improving requirements management processes throughout SAFECO IT and managing a data quality project in SAFECO’s Agency system. He is an advisory board member for Edmonds Community College Database Information Technologies program and is teaching process and data integration at the University of Washington’s certificate program in Data Resource Management. Mr. Harrington is the Vice President of Financial Services for DAMA International and a past President for Data Resource Management Association, the Seattle chapter of DAMA. He is a member of Project Management Institute and Toastmasters International. Mr. Harrington graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree concentrating in Information Systems and Finance in 1994.

DBA 101   

Craig Mullins 
Director of Technology Planning
BMC Software

This presentation will introduce the practices and procedures of the DBA. The various roles and responsibilities to be covered include DBMS selection and installation, physical database design, design reviews, database change management, performance tuning (database, system, and SQL), availability, integrity, security, backup & recovery, disaster planning, and more. Throughout the presentation particular attention will be paid to the environment in which the DBA must perform. This session will be particularly useful for anyone who must interact with DBAs on a daily basis.

Craig S. Mullins is a Director of Technology Planning for BMC Software, located in Houston, TX. Craig has extensive experience in the field of database management having worked as an application developer, a DBA, and an instructor with multiple database management systems including DB2, Oracle, and SQL Server. Additionally, Craig worked as a Research Director with the Gartner Group covering the field of database administration. He is also the author of DB2 Developer’s Guide, the industry-leading book on DB2 for OS/390 and is working on a book on Database Administration that will be published by Addison Wesley early in 2002.

Common Data Architecture & ISO 11179 Comparison 

Michael Brackett
Data Resource Design & Remodeling 

The common data architecture is an integrated set of concepts, principles, and techniques that help people understand existing disparate data and transform those data into an enterprise-wide data resource that supports business activities.  ISO 11179 is set of documents that form a standard for the development and maintenance of metadata that help people understand the existing data resource.

The common data architecture and ISO 11179 are in general agreement on most of the topics covered in the ISO documents. There are a few situations where ISO and the common data architecture are not in agreement. In these situations, the common data architecture is more robust and has a more solid foundation than ISO. The common data architecture encompasses ISO and goes well beyond ISO to cover all components of the data resource as well as existing disparate data.

This SIG will discuss the principles and features of the common data architecture and ISO 11179, their similarities and differences, and how the two might work together to provide a formal construct for thoroughly understanding, formally managing, and fully utilizing an organization’s data resource.   

Mike Brackett has developed many innovative concepts and techniques for designing and managing data resources. He has written six books on the topic of application design, data design, and common data architectures. His latest book on Data Resource Quality: Turning Bad Habits into Good Practices explains how to stop the creation of disparate data. He is the founder of Data Resource Design and Remodeling and is a consulting data architect specializing in developing integrated data resources. He is the President of DAMA International.

Introduction to Integration Message Brokers 

David James
Consultant
IBM Business Intelligence Services Group 

There are several Integration message brokers in the marketplace making large promises of reducing the effort to handle all the interface activity between multiple client server applications and between companies. 

This session will talk about:

David James is a Consultant in the IBM Business Intelligence Services Group.  He specializes in assisting clients in design and development of  effective implementation of enterprise-wide data warehouse and business intelligence solutions, as well as all data management practices.  Mr.James has provided consulting services to organizations from a variety of industries including  financial, manufacturing, utilities, health insurance, government and military operations. Most recently, Mr.James led the data architecture efforts  between the mainframe and the new client server systems applications being used by a large grocery chain company. The result of this work also resulted in the formation of a Data Management team supporting all enterprise data related activities. Mr. James has been a speaker at the International DB2 Users Group (IDUG), The Data Administration Users Group (DAUG) and DAMA. He was the Chairman of the UCC10 Data Dictionary Users Group. Mr. James earned his bachelor of science equivalent in Mechanical Engineering at Basingstoke Technical College in England as part of a five year Apprenticeship program with Smiths Aviation. He is the Educational VP for Data Administration Management Association (DAMA).

Monday, April 29, 2002
5:00 PM to 6:00 PM

Web Services: The Why, What, When, Where and How 

Sridhar Iyengar
Unisys Fellow, Lead Research Director
Unisys Corporation

Web services have become a hot topic of conversation in the past few months, especially amongst CTOs. But there's a lot of confusion about what web services are, and whether they will become as important to the future of business as the consultants would have you believe. Sure, they have a lot of potential for bringing about the full potential of the Internet, but huge issues of standardization and interoperability remain to be solved. In this session Sridhar Iyengar explains what web services are and why they may be important to you.

Sridhar Iyengar, a Unisys Fellow, leads the technology research direction for software products in Unisys Global Industries – The Solution and Systems Integration arm of Unisys. Sridhar's current focus includes the integration of application servers, modeling technologies, database, metadata, and distributed object technology products for Unisys. He is the chief architect of the OMG Meta Object Facility (MOF) and the OMG XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) which together with UML forms the core of OMG Modeling and Metadata architecture – now a central part of the OMG Model Driven Architecture - MDA. Sridhar has directly influenced all the major modeling and metadata standards from OMG including MOF, XMI, UML and CWM in diverse areas like application development, application integration and data warehousing. Sridhar represents Unisys at the OMG where he serves on the OMG Architecture Board and the OMG Board of Directors. Sridhar is one of the primary drivers of the OMG Model Driven Architecture Initiative. One of his pet projects is the integration of UML, MOF and all the evolving metamodels at OMG and elsewhere to maximize the benefits of MDA. He has a master's degree in computer science and is a frequent presenter in industry conferences on topics of modeling, metadata, databases, component software and distributed object technology.

Introduction to Object Role Modeling

Terry Halpin
Program Manager, Database Modeling
Microsoft Corporation 

This session provides an introduction to Object-Role Modeling (ORM), a fact-oriented approach to information analysis that offers many benefits over other data modeling approaches. ORM was designed from the ground up to be:

This presentation covers the basic concepts underlying ORM, as well as various techniques used in ORM to create or transform models. The main focus is on:

Terry Halpin, BSc, DipEd, BA, MLitStud, PhD, is Program Manager in Database Modeling, Enterprise Framework and Tools Unit, at Microsoft Corporation. After a lengthy career as a computer science academic and data modeling consultant, he moved to industry full-time, heading database research at Asymetrix Corporation, InfoModelers Inc., and Visio Corporation before its acquisition by Microsoft. His research focuses on conceptual modeling and conceptual query technology for information systems, using a business rules approach. His doctoral thesis formalized Object-Role Modeling (ORM/NIAM), and his publications include over ninety technical papers, and four books, including Information Modeling and Relational Databases (2001: Morgan Kaufmann).

Business Concepts, Business Rules, and Business Motivation:  The Business Rules Group in Action

Allan Kolber (moderator)
Donald Chapin
Cheryl Estep
John Hall 
Keri Anderson Healy
Ron Ross

At last year’s Symposium, The Business Rules Group participated in an exciting, well-attended, and well-received SIG, focusing on Business Rules and Business Motivation.  This year’s SIG will focus more on the recent work of the Group, “Organizing Business Concepts”, the metamodel and necessary foundation for establishing the vocabulary to do fact modeling, data modeling, and “Rule” work.  Members of the Business Rules Group will speak briefly on various topics, but lots of time will be available for questions and a lively discussion is expected.

Allan Kolber: With 25 years of experience, Allan Kolber is an authority on Enterprise Architecture and the Zachman Framework, Enterprise Modeling, Enterprise Architecture Planning, Business Rules, Data Warehousing, and Data Quality Improvement. Starting as a research scientist and biostatistician, he became Manager of Data Processing for the Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery at NYU Medical Center. There he was responsible for the total implementation of office automation, data acquisition, data analysis, and the development of advanced computing capabilities, such as 3-D surgical simulation and image analysis.  He also designed the national Muscular Dystrophy database. Becoming a consultant, he became an expert in data administration and DB2 database administration.  He led the design and development of the repository and the metadata environment used by the Defense Logistics Service Center.  

From 1987 to 1997, he was the Project Manager or Staff Member for several key projects at GUIDE, including the Repository Data Model, the AD/Cycle Information Model Comparison, Data Modeling Extensions, and Business Rules.  The Business Rules Project produced the model of Business Rules, the first GUIDE paper published on the Internet.  He became one of the founding members of the Business Rules Group, which recently published “Organizing Business Planning - The Standard Model for Business Rule Motivation” and is now working on “Organizing Business Concepts”.  Allan has spoken on many topics, recently focusing on Data Warehousing, Data Quality Improvement, Metadata, and Business Rule Motivation.

Overview of Dublin Core for Web-Based Meta Data 

Todd Stephens
Director of the Metadata Services Group
BellSouth 

The Dublin Core is a standard representation of metadata that can be used to represent semantic meaning for web based objects. This presentation will introduce the basics of the Dublin Core initiative and how their organization can implement this standard.

A vast majority of the research articles looked at the documentation from a semantic point of view.  Web pages contain an enormous amount of information designed for humans to read, but not for providing documentation or meaning.  The semantic Web will provide structure to the meaningful content of web pages, which will create an environment where software agents can read and understand the content.  Many researchers have expressed the concern that the web will not provide the vast potential promised until object representation is accessible to other machines or software. Searching, for example, would be more precise if web documents included the internal documentation required to express the actual content of the document. 

Attendees will learn:

Presenter will provide links to an actual working model that can be downloaded and implemented within any web site. 

Todd Stephens is the Director of the Metadata Services for BellSouth in Atlanta, GA. Todd has been with BellSouth for about 4 years. His primary responsible is setting the corporate strategy and architecture for the development and implementation of Metadata Repositories, which include metadata, data transformation, component, XML, content, documentation, metrics, interfaces, and the Enterprise Information Portal using the XML technologies. Todd has developed frameworks that have earned him two patent-pending applications within the past 2 years. Todd is enrolled at Nova Southeastern University pursuing his Ph.D. in Information Systems. Todd’s area of research interest include Metadata Reuse.

Requirements Gathering using Facilitative Techniques

Shelley Lieberman
Director of Strategic and Systems Planning
Mathtech, Inc   

Requirements Analysis is a people-intensive process that identifies and analyzes the “what” of the business.  There are multiple perspectives of the business, depending on who you speak to.  What better way to obtain all those perspectives at once, and meld them into coherent business requirements than to hold facilitative sessions.  Facilitation offers the opportunity to obtain requirements from multiple sources using a logical discussion path, with a controlled environment. In this session, we will discuss how facilitation fits into the Requirements Analysis methodology by providing real –life examples. 

Shelley Lieberman has over 25 years of experience in management consulting, information architecture, business process redesign, SDLC methodology, and facilitation.  Ms. Lieberman earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Performance Psychology from Ohio State University, and a Masters Degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Ohio State University.  Ms. Lieberman has directed projects in Information Strategic Planning and Business Area Analysis for various industries; such as Financial Services, forestry, government, and utilities.  She has also been project leader for many process improvement studies, and facilitated strategic planning sessions.  In addition, she has directed Data Administration and end-user consulting groups.  She is well-versed in data and process modeling methodologies, and has developed methodology rollout plans for company IT departments. Based upon her consulting experience, Ms. Lieberman is also an accomplished course developer and instructor.  Topics include: facilitation, logical data modeling, SDLC methodology, and project management.  Her extra activities include the Philadelphia and New Jersey DAMA chapters, LaSalle MIS Advisory Board, and Toastmasters International.

A Roadmap for BI Requirements and Tool Selection

Sean Bogue
VP - Enterprise Intelligence
Painted Word

The business need for a systems improvement is at a breaking point, and your sponsor has finally given the green light.  But requirements definition looks like a black hole, the technology solutions available to you are unknown, and the project needs to be in design phase by the end of the month!  This presentation will give you a road map for rapid progress on both requirements gathering and tool selection – two critical first steps in any business intelligence solution.  What is most important in gathering requirements?  How do I evaluate “off the shelf” tools vs. more customizable solutions?  How do I prioritize requirements gathering and tool selection?

Projects need to gain traction early in order to maintain momentum and keep internal support.  Having a good roadmap for these two early phases of a project will build confidence and help insure a successful implementation.

Sean Bogue leads the Enterprise Intelligence practice area for Painted Word, an IT and business consulting services firm in Cambridge, MA.  Painted Word provides business intelligence solutions and advice, primarily to Fortune 500 clients.  Mr. Bogue is responsible for researching and guiding the business context in which Painted Word’s technology solutions reside.  Previously, he served as VP of Finance at Staples, Inc., where he held various positions responsible for corporate wide financial planning, analytical financial systems, and business unit financial operations.  He earned his MBA from Cornell University, and a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Virginia.

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