The Importance of Communication

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The Importance of Communication

• Effective communication techniques for data
  management professionals

A presentation by Mike Nicewarner
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Important Information
Effective communication is more than just having
good information

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  ??????????? IT
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  ?????? ?? IT

• Data management is an important component of a
  healthy IT organization
• Database administrators are very intelligent
• A good data modeler can simplify complex business
  requirements
• Without good data, all IT efforts will fail

It is more than excellent presentation skills
It requires understanding, and change, so that
the involved parties are impacted
So, for today, my goal is to effectively
communicate with you
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Introduction

• Who am I?
• Who are you?
• Why are we here?
• What can we learn today?
• Questions are the best wayto start a
  conversation
• How may I help you?
• But not Whadya want??

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Agenda

• Data Management
• Definitions, discussion
• Various Roles and Responsibilities
• Bridging the Gap
• Discussion of topics, tools and techniques
• Conclusion

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What is Data Management?

• Encompasses data storage, manipulation,
  migration, security, etc
• Data Modeling
• Gathering / documenting data requirements
• Organizing structuring data storage
• Development project must consider data concerns
  at an early phase
• Data requirements must be captured and
  communicated during and after the project

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What is Data Modeling?
Business Requirements
Conceptual Data Model
Logical Data Model
Level of detail
Scope of model
Physical Data Model
Database Implementation
Time
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What are Data Requirements

• Conversational, narrative, business-oriented
• Might start as a list of things
• Describe relationships between things
• Capture metadata within context of business
  process
• Ask questions like What is this?, Where does
  it come from?, Who provides this?

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The Conceptual Data Model

• History
• Peter Chens Entity-Relationship Diagram
• Typical ERD

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The Conceptual Data Model

• Can be read
• Why use just boxes and lines?

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The Conceptual Data Model

• Value in simplicity
• Additional metadata under the covers
• Can show more or less detail
• Audience is Business and Architects

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The Conceptual Data Model

• ER is most common, but it has failings
• Cyclic relationships
• Must decide Entity or Attribute too early
• Other methods out there
• Object Role Modeling
• Do not be religious about notations
• Use whatever works to communicate
• With the Business!

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Logical Data Model

• Data structure starting to have structure
• Additional details
• Foreign keys, surrogate keys, indexes, data types
• IT standards and conventions
• Audience is IT
• Architects, Business Analysts , Developers, etc.

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Logical Data Model

• Consider the other modeling notations
• Again, communication is critical
• Yes, within IT
• Should I force everyone to learn my language?
• Can I adapt my presentation to them?
• What would make the communication more effective?
• Should know their language

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Physical Data Model

• Database-specific details
• Very technical
• DBA heavily involved
• Typical hand-off situation (DA -gt DBA)
• Naming conventions
• Physical options
• Audience is DBA and Developer

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Physical Data Model

• How many of us spend all our time in the physical
  model?
• Is this the right language to use for everyone?
• How about this one
• Sure, we use data models to initially design the
  database, but from that point the DBA handles all
  the maintenance.
• YIKES!

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Roles and Responsibilities

• In IT
• Project Manager
• Business Analyst
• Requirements Analyst
• Architect System, Data, Infrastructure
• Developer Tech lead, Coder
• Data Analyst
• Database Administrator
• What is our collective goal?

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Roles and Responsibilities

• In Business
• Executive
• Project Champion
• Business Liaison
• Subject Matter Expert
• Data Steward / Owner
• Not a user to be found
• What languages do they speak?

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Effective Communication

• (All that to get to this, it had better be good)
• Unfortunately, this is pretty simple stuff,but
  often overlooked
• First, our job in IT is to support the business
• If we get caught up in being gate keepers, the
  business will jump the fence
• Saying NO without something positive causes
  frustration
• Focus on enabling, not on disabling

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Effective Communication

• Second, the business can get along just fine
  without us
• Can you say outsource? I knew you could
• They had a business process before they came to
  us
• They might be coming to IT because they were told
  to, not because they wanted to
• Be a participant in solving their problems
• Add value to their business (easy, huh)

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Effective Communication

• Finally, educate yourself
• Basic communication skills presenting,
  organizing, researching, etc
• Know the business not just the IT partget to
  know as much as you can (immersion)
• Know your job data management trends, data
  modeling techniques, corporate decisions, etc

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Summary

• Data Management
• There are a number of styles and notations
• Establish corporate standards
• Pick appropriate style/form
• Need tools that can tie it all together
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Enable, assist, support, add value
• Communicate, dont just talk

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Discussion

• What do you think?