As I continue to pore over old magazines and documents that were clogging my closet, I keep on finding interesting things. Yes, I am still, slowly, methodically cleaning out the closet in my home office. It was quite a mess - and stuffed with many articles, research notes, and things that I just couldn't part with over the years. Now, the case can be made, that I cannot get rid of some of these things because I'm writing about them... and you never know when I might have to refer back to some of this material. Just what I needed… another excuse to hang onto things!
Of course, I am throwing out a lot of stuff, too. For example, that binder of PC standards from the mid-90's? Trashed. And I threw out a bunch of old parallel printer cables (not all of them, mind you, most of them)... after all, I am still a packrat, just a cleaner one now!
There continue to be some interesting things I’m finding in my closet, too. Regular readers know that I have outlined some of them in recent posts here; and today I am going to subject you to a few more.
I came across a research note from Gartner Group on the value of training IS professionals (from 1995, hence the IS instead of IT). In it, Gartner notes that the per-employee costs of retraining a programmer on a new development paradigm (that was a big word back then) is almost $7,000 over 25 days. I wonder if this still holds true? The note goes on to discuss the hidden costs, too: things like productivity loss, the cost of the underground support network, and diminished service levels. I think this is all still very valid. The more things change, the more they stay the same...Of course, you have to re-train your staff on new development methods, right? If not, we'd all still be coding COBOL.
Another interesting Gartner Group research piece I pulled out of an old pile of papers was on the topic of metadata (from 1994). The note basically described the function of metadata for data transformation, data delivery, and informational purposes. It closed by stating that organizations need to recognize the importance of metadata to achieve success. And this is still true today. Indeed, there is somewhat of a renaissance of metadata management occurring in businesses today as they struggle to cope with growing mounds of data and stringent regulatory requirements. That is (sort of) what data governance is all about.
And here is a white paper on how to inspire an audience as you give a presentation. With all the presentations I give each year I understand why I kept this. According to Carmine Gallo, author of Fire Them Up!, there are 7 keys for inspiring an audience, and they form an acronym that reads INSPIRE:
- Ignite Your Enthusiasm
- Navigate the Way
- Sell the Benefit
- Paint a Picture
- Invite Participation
- Reinforce Optimism
- Encourage Potential
Finally, at least for today, I came across a 1997 research note on the Repository market. This research note talked about the consolidation that was going on in that space back then: Brownstone and Reltech acquired by Platinum technology; R&O acquired by Viasoft. Interestingly, neither of the acquirers exist as independent software vendors today: Platinum was acquired by CA and Viasoft was acquired by ASG. And today the big Respository in the sky concept is basically dead (or dying).
I’ve written about this before, check it out here if you’d like - The Importance of Metadata, Part 3.
I'm taking a break from the cleaning effort the next couple of days, but I doubt this will be the last blog post on this topic as I continue to review the "stuff" that comes out of my closet. So check back regularly for more…