The Chief Data Officer needs to make sure that the business rules that are imbedded into software areformally approved by subject matter experts from the business side.

1. www.sharpinformatics.com ©2015 Sharp Informatics, LLC John Sharp <sharp@sharpinformatics.com>
Data Whispering™
I was recently anointed the Data Whisperer™ by our design team because I was the
one that found every modeling error. In order to promote better quality data models,
I am starting this newsletter. Each issue will highlight a simple modeling error that I
often encounter. I will also include current SI news and a Normer™ for you to solve.
Today’s mini‐session focuses on the importance of preventing bad data from
entering databases. It is necessary to capture all of the good data, but when bad data
is also allowed in, it is left to the analyst to guarantee the quality of the data used in
business decisions. An initial way of doing this is to find all of the alternate keys in a
table. I like to call these keys real world keys because they are what the subject
matter experts commonly use to identify the object. The real world key can be easily
found and validated by SMEs using the Natural Language Modeling™ matrix below.
The all No vector (fourth column) means there is a 1:1 relationship that yields
Drawing No and Version as a real world key. This alternate key needs to be called out
in the table to prevent the occurrence of the same Drawing No and Version from
getting more than one Drawing Version ID.
If you would like to participate in a Data Whispering™ session that validates and/or
corrects a section of your data model please contact me.
2015 Enterprise Data World
This was their first sold out conference!
My paper on “Proactive Data Support for
Agile Development” was well received. I
discussed the value of using elementary
fact types for future sprints and the value
of populating an enterprise architecture
with the same elementary fact types to
minimize rework when business rules
change. I got a nice compliment from one
young attendee when she thanked me for
describing how to improve skills instead of
just presenting my good results.
New buzzword at EDW 2015
Chief Data Officer If your company does not
have one, it may soon. Anthony Algmin, who
has two months of experience as the first
CDO for the Chicago Transit Authority, stated
that his role is using data and analytics to
improve the bus and rail service throughout
Chicago. His presentation focused on
establishing strategic data quality to enable
business activities and decisions. The first
International CDO conference is being held in
London next month.
Data Whisperer
Volume 1 Issue 1
April, 2015
Normer™ Challenge
The first person to solve this Normer™ gets a Silver Dollar.* A
Normer consists of a set of columns and rows of data. The data
is all good and there is a necessary and sufficient number of data
rows to completely define all elementary fact types. The
solution is a set of tables and keys that are properly normalized.
A table may have more than one key. Solutions must be
emailed back within two days of the original email timestamp.
The correct solution with the earliest timestamp will be the
winner. Submit to: John Sharp <sharp@sharpinformatics.com>
* The fine print: If you have taken an NLM course, worked on a project with me,
won a Normer™ Silver Dollar or have a non‐US mailing address you are excluded
from receiving a silver dollar but you can still compete for speed.
Drawing Version 7T…6K is for Version 2 of
Drawing MK4429.
Drawing
Version ID
Version Drawing
No
7T…6K 2 MK4429 Allowed?
Another 2 MK4429 No
7T…6K Another MK4429 No
7T…6K 2 Another No
Normer™ 16
A B C D
a1 b1 c1 d1
a2 b1 c1 d1
a1 b1 c1 d2
a3 b2 c1 d1
a4 b1 c2 d1
A Normer™ solution for 5 columns could look like this:
A E C B E D
DrawingVersionID
DrawingNo
Version
Title
Date
….
DrawingVersion
To be added to the distribution list: Subject = ADD; to be deleted:
Subject = DELETE to datawhisperer@sharpinformatics.com
™
Ugh: Data walk into a NoSQL Bar. They
leave because there are no tables.
Norm for
Silver