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"Where did it all go wrong?"
Joint DAMA UK and BCS seminar throws light on avoiding data management problems
Where did it all go wrong?, the title of a joint DAMA UK and British Computer Society (BCS) seminar held in London, resulted in many useful anecdotes and valuable insights on data management.
The purpose of the event was to show members of both institutions - mostly data managers and related specialists - how to improve the quality and management of data to help them better support users, processes and the goals of their organisations. Summarised highlights are appended.
Seven respected and knowledgeable data management experts candidly explained how they dealt with problems in this vital area of aligning IT with business requirements, including the lessons learned and how knowledge may be exploited.
Topics ranged from recognising, avoiding or minimising risk and how to apply best practice. Discussion panels, enabling delegates to interact, learn and gain the most value from the day, complemented the presentations.
Hosted by management consultancy Deloitte at their London office in the Strand, the seminar was one in a series of instructive forums devised and organised by the British chapter of DAMA International, a respected and global professional institution representing the key interests of data resource management professionals.
"DAMA UK continued its annual collaboration with the BCS Data Management Specialist Group to present an insight into the effects of poor data quality on both organisations and individuals," said Graham Jones, the director of DAMA UK responsible for vendor relations. "It is not often IT professionals are willing to be open about problems, but this event provided an important opportunity for delegates to note and apply lessons learned by others to their own organisations."
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EVENT
DAMA UK and BCS DMSG Seminar, 15 June 2007, London
"Data management - where did it all go wrong"
The day started with Ed Wrazen of Trillium Software who shared his experiences of what can go wrong across a variety of industry sectors, from car hire to travel agents and the armed forces. He explained how Data Profiling can replace reliance on people's memories, or out-of-date documentation, and significantly increase an organisation's understanding of its data.
Dr Mikhaila Burgess, from the University of Cardiff, spoke about the meaning of Data Quality, how it is defined and, most importantly, how the definitions change depending on whether you are a producer, custodian or user of the data. These different definitions have a considerable impact on people's perspectives of data quality and the associated priorities on the improvements needed.
Following the theme of the previous DAMA UK seminar, Chris Bradley of IPL spoke with some passion of the need to make the most of Data Models. He said many organisations do not seem to acknowledge the value of these models and, therefore, have no interest in building them or using them to improve their business.
Another, often overlooked, facet was introduced by Lorna Brown, a Director of ModelPKS Consultancy Services Ltd. She spoke of the human impact of poor data management systems and processes. This relates to the negative effects of poor quality data on the daily work of people within the organisation. It was very clear from the audience's reactions that this aspect is rarely considered.
Ron Nicholls of BT and Steve Tuck, CTO of Datanomic, enlightened and entertained the audience with further humorous examples of both business and personal experiences of the problems caused by poor Data Management.
The seminar was concluded by Tom Scampion of hosts for the day, Deloitte. He presented a summary of the Deloitte view on Data Quality and highlighted how the organisation has developed an approach and a practice of specialists to help clients avoid some of the all too common consequences of not managing data properly.
The presentations were entertaining at the same time as being informative and making serious statements. A lot of the material provoked new considerations amongst the audience and, in turn, led to some lively debate and discussion during the networking sessions.
