Above all, data models should be seen as a means of enabling communication among different stakeholders, including decision-makers, content experts, business analysts, and designers.

Unfortunately, the communication often gets lost, either in the clouds, in the weeds, or somewhere off to the side. Whether the modeler has drifted too quickly into abstraction and generalization, or has taken the “deep dive for detail,” the result is the same – confused, frustrated, or detached subject matter experts. The inevitable result? – inaccurate or incomplete models!

It doesn't have to be this way - simple techniques, consistently and regularly applied, will go a long way to ensuring involvement, buy-in, and communication. Drawing on almost 30 years of successful data modeling experience, this presentation will describe core techniques, backed up by practical examples, for helping people appreciate, use, and possibly even want to build data models.

Topics include:

• “Role induction” for clients – skip the "tutorial" on data modeling and Just Do It!
• Conventions for comprehension – guidelines for data model graphics.
• “Scripts” for growing the model – the value of consistency.
• Show them what they’ve already got – and why they don’t like it.
• Presenting vs. modeling – considerations for the emerging world of “systems archaeology”.