April 2002 - Volume 1, Issue 15

IN THIS ISSUE

Featured Article: The Power of Abstraction - Part 1 of a series on abstraction   

• Data Quality and the Data Analyst   
• The Importance of the Data & Knowledge Management Specialist   
• Near Real Time (NRT) and The Next Generation ETL Tool   
• Measuring Client Satisfaction   

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• The Power of Abstraction - Part 1 of a series on abstraction   
  

  Abstraction is a very important tool for data modelers to be aware of and use appropriately. It is worth dedicating a series of articles to this topic, with this article being the first. This article explains abstraction including providing examples along with its benefits and costs.
• Data Quality and the Data Analyst   
  

  Sometimes Data Analysts can remind me of Don Quixote. They think they are brave knights slaying dragons when in reality they are chasing windmills. They can become so caught up in the theoretical that they lose touch with reality. We must be careful that we are fighting Dragons not windmills. If we don't we will waste our time and energy and just appear foolish and proud. We may brag about the Dragons that we have slain while everyone else is snickering about the windmills they saw us chasing.
• The Importance of the Data & Knowledge Management Specialist   
  

  Are data and knowledge managers truly expendable? Many companies give us the impression that they think data and knowledge managers are expendable. Data and knowledge management specialists work in an industry where business management and technology management still don't recognize or acknowledge the importance of what they do

  manage corporate data and knowledge as valuable assets. Why must data management and knowledge management-focused professionals have to justify their existence on a regularly basis? Why must DAs and KM specialists live with the fear that our positions may be in jeopardy? With the fate of our collecting a paycheck in the hands of people who are just now starting to realize our potential value (haven't we been saying that for a while), we often ask ourselves "why are data and knowledge managers some of the first professionals that are considered expendable when companies start reducing IT budget and unnecessary expenditures?"
• Near Real Time (NRT) and The Next Generation ETL Tool   
  

  This article is a short look at ETL, the future of the ETL tool and what EAI (Near-Real-Time Feeds - NRT) bring to the table. We look briefly at the feature set that the new ETL tools will have to have, not only to cover NRT - but also to cover additional requirements in data movement and integration. We also take a very quick look at EAI and the differences between it and ETL.
• Measuring Client Satisfaction   
  

  Accurately gauging client satisfaction is critical to the success of a consulting entity. However, the subjective nature of these evaluations makes precise measurement extremely difficult. Successful project managers must find ways to isolate this subjectivity and find specific, measurable criteria to analyze their team's effectiveness.