Emerging Technologies and Methodologies - Culling through the Hype

Quarter after quarter, emerging methodologies, technologies and information "opportunities" are presented to not only ourselves, but our peers and business partners. When you work for a small to medium size company, there are not only a limited number of financial resources; there are also limited human resources. In addition to that there are vendors and professional organizations coming out of the woodwork, who want to "partner" with you, "educate" you and help you with these new "things". Someone has the accountability to sort these out, provide more background, consider the feasibility and manage expectations around the next new wave.

This brief talk will not provide you with all the knowledge of these topics, but rather provide you with some steps to manage the information overload. It will include:

A scoring mechanism to use within your own teams on relevance and usability.
Guidelines for how to introduce new concepts to your technical and business peers.
Recommendations on how to find more information on specific topics of interest, minus the vendor hype.
Polite ways to divert zealous vendors.
Tips on elevating items you deem important to your leadership.

With 25 years of experience in a variety of sizes of companies I have truly experienced some of this challenge and want to make it easier for you, my colleagues.

Dawn Michels is an Enterprise Information Architect located near St. Paul, MN. Dawn has contributed her architectural and data management skills across many industries, including, Retail, Manufacturing, Medical Devices and Financial industries. Dawn's employment tapestry includes; Regis Corp, Target Inc, Andersen (Windows and Doors), Guidant Corp, Fair Isaac Inc, Securian and General Mills, where she led the first Corp Wide DW. This included data design, internal marketing as well as hardware and software selection. To round out her professional career, Dawn has been an adjunct faculty member at The Universities of St. Catherine and St. Thomas, teaching courses in MIS, Info Management and Data Warehousing. She has spoken at Eleven International Conferences on assorted topics of interest, and speaks for other DAMA chapters as requested. Dawn is most recent past-President of the DAMA MN chapter. Data is her passion as well as her vocation.