Data management must be visible and relevant to the enterprise and its executives for it to survive. The temptation to cut DM staff, or outsource it, is far too strong in some organizations. Executives generally neither understand data architecture (a severe abstraction) nor meta-data. They may accept data warehousing (when the project has been a success). How do you make data management relevant to them?

We will review a 5-tier model of IT to show the widening range of functions (and personality types) involved in IT. Professor Scofield will show how data architecture fits into the business organization and is a crucial aspect of the business. Data architecture compatibility thus becomes a key criterion for the evaluation and selection of business software applications (such as ERP packages). Often these decisions are made at too high a level, and DM is consulted after it is too late.

We will look at ways to use DM (and the data warehouse) to "stay engaged and immersed" in the life of the enterprise. Introverts are at risk. You must be out there, listening to what decisions and issues are confronting the enterprise, and offering direct and immediate solutions--not merely "back office" support for the DBA and programming projects. We will look at some simple techniques in exploiting meta-data and data warehousing to make the DM function irreplaceable to the organization.