DAMA IA/MN June Chapter Presentation – Achieving Buzzword Compliance: Data Architecture Language and Vocabulary
When: Wednesday, June 21, 2023 9:00am CDT
Speaker: David Hay
Presentation Description:
According to the Cambridge Business English Dictionary, a buzzword is “a word or expression from a particular subject area that has become fashionable because it has been used a lot”. Compliance is “the obeying of an accepted principle or instruction that states the way things are or should be done.”
The Data Architecture field is rife with terms that have become “fashionable”. Some of the terms began with very specific, specialized, meanings – but as their use spread, they lost the precision of their technical definitions and become, well, “buzzwords”. (Consider: “logical” and “conceptual” data model.) To be sure, lot of words described here have not yet achieved buzzword status. Perhaps it’s time to head those off as well.
How do you define a “conceptual model”? What about a “logical model”? “Physical model”? Would your neighbor agree on any of these? But of course, that’s not all. We have to deal not only with “entity relationship model” and “object role modeling”, but also with “the semantic web”, and “NoSQL”, among many others. Oh, and can anyone define “canonical model”?
It turns out that data industry is beginning to converge on these and related terms. But it’s not quite done yet. This presentation is a humble attempt to complete the process.
In each case, the definitions for each “buzzword” are meant to be detailed enough for the viewer to understand its basic principles—while recognizing that a full understanding will require consulting the sources where they are more completely described.
Biography of David Hay:
In the Information Industry since it was called “data processing”, Dave Hay has been producing data models to support strategic and requirements planning for thirty years. As President of Essential Strategies International for nearly twenty-five of those years, Dave has worked in a variety of industries and government agencies. These include banking, clinical pharmaceutical research, intelligence, highways, and all aspects of oil production and processing. Projects entailed defining corporate information architecture, identifing requirements, and planning strategies for the implementation of new systems. Dave’s recently-published book, “Enterprise Model Patterns: Describing the World”, is an “upper ontology” consisting of a comprehensive model of any enterprise—from several levels of abstraction. It is the successor to his ground-breaking 1995 book, “Data Model Patterns: Conventions of Thought”–the original book describing standard data model configurations for standard business situations. In addition, he has written other books on metadata, requirements analysis, and UML. He has spoken at numerous international and local data architecture, semantics, user group, and other conferences.
Agenda
9:00 Opening Remarks
9:05-11:30 Presentation / QA
Location
Remote Meeting – Zoom
Hosted by Dama Minnesota
More information and online registration: Achieving Buzzword Compliance: Data Architecture Language and Vocabulary – Overview