DAMA Canberra Branch Newsletter - February 1998

1. Administration
2. "Internet Based Data Management" - Peter Harwood (SRICO Pty Ltd). This will be a workshop where we define the direction for data management using Internet tools, identify the issues, brainstorm solutions and generally have a good time under Peter's direction. For those who have had the chance to attend one of Peter's talks or workshops you'll know he'll cut through the hype and head straight for the jugular. Be ready for an enjoyable session. We do ask that you to be on time and come prepared with lots of ideas.
3. Light Refreshments

The committee would like to welcome all new members to DAMA Canberra. This year promises to be an exciting one culminating in DAMA 98 - the National DAMA Conference to be held at Canberra's Old Parliament House in October. DAMA is all about data managers sharing their experiences and learning from each other in a friendly, relaxed environment. If you know anyone who would like to join us, please invite them along. They will receive a warm welcome.

The first meeting for 1998 was held on 24^th February at the DEETYA Offices in Civic. The theme of the meeting was "Repositories: The Good, the Bad and What Next". Thanks to the speakers and a special thanks to Marie Cook for organising the venue and speakers. Thanks also to all who attended - it was a great roll out for the start of the year.

Attendees

Apologies to those whose names we missed.

Des Walker asked members to suggest speakers for the DAMA National Conference to be held at Old Parliament House, Canberra on 22-23 October. He noted that Terry Moriaty, a CASE specialist and writer for the Database Management and Programming magazine will be coming to Australia in April to give three seminars and that further details would appear in the next Newsletter. (Note: Enclosed brochure showing Canberra seminar on 20-21 April.)

Des reminded attendees that membership fees were due and thanked those who have already paid.

Presentation by Marie Cook and Mike Borucinski (DEETYA), and Curtis Litterer (Prism Solutions)

Marie Cook began the presentation, making the following points:

• DEETYA data users may be classified into three groups: "business users" who are very familiar with their own particular source data systems and know how to access the data; "technical users" who are also familiar with the data sources; and "occasional users" who cannot be expected to know how to access data in the source systems;
• Data is extracted from source systems and loaded into a "Corporate Management Information System", maintained on the mainframe. The data is refreshed weekly, over the weekend. Regular data extraction programs are typically run on Monday mornings.

Marie gave a short presentation using the BRIO data warehouse tool. She was able to "drag and drop" field names to create a query. These field names (presented as picklists) related to a mainframe based DB2 database.

Marie also showed how the results of queries (either as static HTML or dynamic) could be accessed through their intranet. There are difficulties in this system in getting relevant detailed meta data to the appropriate users. They must deliver accurate figures to job brokerage firms via the Internet but this must be supported by up-to-date meta data. Other groups of users, eg service providers at various sites, are provided with access only to data in the Information Systems that are relevant to them.

The meta data relating to this data is stored in various places and formats, for example business specifications in Word documents, source systems in COOL:GEN, SQLServer specifications in ERWin, some in ADABAS Predict, some ERWIN etc. Thus it is difficult to get a comprehensive view of the meta data. The object of the Prism Directory initiative is to bring together this meta data.

Mike Borucinski outlined the characteristics of COOL:GEN (previously COMPOSER) as a PC based integrated application development tool, making the following points:

• COOL:GEN supports data modelling and functional analysis. It can generate a database and code from the model.
• It is difficult to maintain both logical and physical models. The logical model tends to become out of date.
• The aim is to get developers and users to access the data with their own tools, but the present developers' world is not well integrated with Microsoft based environment.
• In the mainframe environment there is just one COOL:GEN repository but in the micro world there are lots of different developers and meta data repositories. The PC developers generally do not like using the case tool as well (poor interface, slowness of m/f access etc).
• Process re-use is very difficult to achieve at present but Mike's area is very keen to overcome this.

Mike noted he would prefer a single case environment but it seems likely that there will always be several such tools. They are looking towards the use of a single repository (say Microsoft Repository) supported by several tools (COOL:GEN, ERWin..) and perhaps using a single specification language (like UML).

Curtis Litterer described how PRISM will be used in DEETYA to create an information directory.

• PRISM can accept input from COMPOSER and ERWIN.
• The name "directory" implies more structure than "repository".
• The "technical view" is in terms of tables and columns; the "business view" is in terms of objects. Objects can be business items, operational files, keywords, etc, They can be in hierarchies or otherwise related. They are customised to users' needs.
• The directory will relate terms and descriptions to tables and will publish to the Internet.
• Maintaining the meta data will be the difficult problem. To be done successfully it has to be driven by a business imperative

Presentation by Chris Thorne (Centrelink)

Chris Thorne described how DSS plans to use a "logical repository" to overcome the problem of having more than one meta data repository.

• Centrelink has a repository upon which sits around 300 applications development functions and a million lines of source code. These facilities currently support nearly 50,000 programs and modules. It cannot be replaced in the short term.
• The functions are mission critical. At the same time they are subject to constant update. On any given day it is estimated that in the order of 20% of the code is being affected by updating in some way (around a dozen releases being worked on at once).
• The repository including a rigorous information model definition and automated "real-time" version management (not batch oriented "check in - check out") is the mechanism by which updating is controlled and made possible.
• The repository is intrinsically object oriented.
• The proposed logical repository is a method for integrating this repository with others containing information that should be shared. Chris stated that "there will never be just a single physical repository which controls all meta-data".
• In essence, integration is achieved using an "open repository interface" which converts all meta data to be shared in a common format.

There was no other business so the meeting closed at around 6pm. Light refreshments were then served.

DAMA Canberra is working with the Sydney and Melbourne chapters to form closer ties and present an Australian flavour to DAMA. This will streamline our operations and result in the greater sharing of information, meeting and workshop themes, and speakers. In doing this we are about to:

• take out national incorporation for the association
• take out public liability insurance to ensure all members are covered at our meetings
• establish an Australian DAMA web page
• establish a national DAMA register with invoicing and mailouts coordinated from a central point.

We are also about to place an article describing DAMA Down Under in the DM Review, a monthly magazine for Data Management professionals.

If anyone can offer advice on any of the above undertakings, please call us.

DAMA Canberra has recently held discussions with the Canberra chapters of the Records Management Association of Australia (RMAA) and the Institute of Information Management (IIM). Both groups are keen to share ideas and look at reciprocal rights for our members. We also discussed the possibility of holding joint workshops. Stay posted.

DAMA Canberra would like to invite members of RMAA or IIM to join us at any of our meetings.

Please feel free to give us your thoughts on the format and themes for the meetings. We are looking for volunteers for short presentations of these topics. Give any of the committee a call.

If members of other DAMA Chapters are in Canberra on the days of our meetings, we would like to extend our invitation for them to attend.

The following are quips and anecdotes concerning man's best friend - the computer.

• A Dell customer called to say he couldn't get his computer to fax anything After 40 minutes of trouble-shooting, the technician discovered the man was trying to fax a piece of paper by holding it in front of the monitor and hitting the 'send' key.
• A customer called a Compaq technical support staffer to say her brand new computer wouldn't work. She said she unpacked the unit, plugged it in and sat there for 20 minutes waiting for something to happen. When asked what happened when she pressed the power switch, she asked "What power switch?"
• Another Dell technician received a call from a customer who was enraged because his computer had told him he "bad and an invalid". The technician explained that the computer's 'bad command' and 'invalid' responses shouldn't be taken personally.

And you thought Data Administrators had all the fun!

The following web sites are worth visiting. If you know other sites that are worth a look, please let us know.

• Australian MetaWeb Project http://www.dstc.edu.au/RDU/MetaWeb
• Joint Workshop on Metadata Registries
  http://www.lbl.gov/~olken/EPA/Workshop/report.html

The Data Modelling Handbook: A Best Practice Approach to Building Quality Data Models, Reingruber, Michael C. and Gregory, William W., Wiley-QED, 1994.

For those who have big budgets or will just happen to be in the US in March, the following should be of interest:

For more info see - http://www.infoimpact.com

For those who have smaller budgets or will just happen to be in the Brisbane in April, you may be interested in:

If you would like more information on either of the above events, call any of the committee.

Please feel free to contact any of the committee, if you have questions about DAMA, the Canberra Chapter or any of its future events, or any suggestions on how we can improve the meetings, newsletters, contact, etc.

Canberra DAMA