THE DATA ADMINISTRATION NEWSLETTER – TDAN.com
ROBERT S. SEINER – PUBLISHER

It’s the time of year for retrospective looks at  2007 accomplishments, so for this issue of the DAMA Corner, here are the major accomplishments of DAMA International over the past year:

Successful Conferences

Once again, DAMA International sponsored successful conferences in Boston and London. Attendance remained strong at both conferences; and, again, presenters spoke to a variety of topics. These gatherings of the leading practitioners and thought-leaders in the profession continue to be a first-choice option for many data management professionals. In 2008, the U.S. conference will be in March in San Diego, which promises (much) warmer temperatures but the same great programming. We also established a Canada DAMA conference, which will be held in Toronto in June of 2008. This is our first extension beyond the U.S. and UK, and holds great promise for other ventures.

DAMA.ORG 2.0

For much of 2007, the DAMA International Board of Directors studied ways to improve our web abilities and evaluated various tools that met these needs at a reasonable cost. The tool we ultimately selected will allow us to manage our web content much more efficiently, a critical item for an all-volunteer organization. We are also rolling out a consolidated membership database, which will allow DAMA members to gain additional benefits from their membership. There is much yet to do on this in 2008, but with the infrastructure set, we may finally be ready to slay this dragon!

Furthering the Profession

One of DAMA International’s core purposes is to further the data management profession, and 2007 was a banner year in this regard.

• Development on the DAMA Data Management Body of Knowledge (DAMA-DMBOK) began in earnest. When completed, this will become a valuable reference for describing approaches and best practices to data management.
  
  
• The DAMA Dictionary was created, with publishing starting now. This will complement the DAMA-DMBOK and provide consistency and clarity for people in our line of work and (more importantly) for the management, human resources, project planners and others outside our profession.
  
  
• The CDMP (Certified Data Management Professional) designation continued to become better established as the way of demonstrating mastery within data management. Our work here consisted of creating new exams, developing study guides, and supporting training and examinations for the CDMP.

Development of the DAMA International Foundation

Work progressed steadily through the challenging process of gaining U.S. tax exempt status for our new Foundation. Once completed, the DAMA International Foundation will be in a position to solicit tax-exempt donations for DAMA International research into data management topics. This may support things such as the DAMA-DMBOK, the DAMA Dictionary, professional surveys and other research topics.

Operational Improvements

This is the least sexy of our 2007 accomplishments, but one that we reap benefits from every day. DAMA became a more open organization throughout 2007, with better documentation of internal policies and board duties, a repeatable election cycle, the formation of a Globalisation Committee to improve and globalize our operations, among other efforts, which will enable us to work better and faster in 2008.

We have lots of work to do on these initiatives, as well as some new ones in 2008, that’s for sure. We’ll need to keep chipping away at these challenges in the year ahead, taking advantage of small gains to yield big improvements. To do that, we’ll need the help of DAMA members across the globe. It’s going to be an exciting year in DAMA – I hope you will be a part of our continued success!