What is DAMA?

DAMA is the Data Management Association International which is an association of data professionals. They have curated a certification program, framework, and documentation when it comes to database. There are many frameworks out there that you can use when dealing with data architecture:

• DAMA
• DCAM
• CMMI
• IBM
• Stanford
• Gartner

I’m not going to go deep into the others or their differences right now, but here’s a link from datacrossroads that talks about them all briefly. So, what exactly is the framework? Well, it is essentially a high-level guide to help obtain or work towards Data Governance while enhancing your company’s data maturity.

The diagram shows all of the topics that their framework covers and discusses. The DAMA-DMBOK2 book is a study guide to help you become a Certified Data Management Professional through their program. The book is strongly guided towards the test and reads as though you were going to be quizzed. While the book is largely going to be used to obtain the certification, there are some good nuggets of information that can help you lay out a road map for your organization.

Their certification has four levels:

Associate

• Requires 6 months – 5 years of proven experience
• 60% Pass on the Data Management Fundamentals Exam

Practitioner

• Requires 2 years – 10 years of proven experience
• 70% Pass on the Data Management Fundamentals Exam
• Must pass two other specialist exams

Master

• Requires a minimum of 10 years of proven experience
• 80% Pass on the Data Management Fundamentals Exam
• Must pass two other specialist exams

Fellow

• Requires a minimum of 25 years of proven experience
• Globally recognized in the community
• Must have made significant contributions for the DAMA association
• DCMP Master
• Must be nominated

Each exam is about $300 with $200 to retake. When you take the exam and pass, you will become a part of their membership and you must renew every three years for $50 to keep your certification. The exam is mostly online, and they have similar scrutiny over their exams as Microsoft does. There are some events where you can go and take the test at the events.

There are also local communities and meetups that revolve around the organization, although this seems to meet less regularly and have a smaller group setting than the PASS organization.

Nicole Janeway Bills of Atlas Research has also started a Facebook study group for users looking to collaborate learning and working towards their CDMP. This resource was not around when I was looking to take my exam, but I wish it had been! I would recommend taking a look and seeing if it helps with your studies.

To quickly re-summarize, DAMA is a:

• Framework
• Community
• A knowledge base of best practices
• Certification

(You can read their vision and mission statements here too.)

Is DAMA right for you? Well, you probably already practice much of what is involved in DAMA. It felt to me as I read through the book that they put onto paper what is often circling around in our heads. Some of it feels like fluff, some of it feels niche, and some of it feels like review. There is fantastic information chalked into the framework and there are a lot of good ideas still. If you are deep into enterprise data architecture, I’d recommend taking a look at this as well as the other frameworks.

Something I really like about the framework is the foundation of verbiage and roles. They become clearly defined and help you chip away at the communication ambiguity that exists in organizations. Standardizing terms, documentation, and lingo is important anywhere. This serves as an easily obtainable reference to achieve those results.

There is also a clearly defined process in the framework around each subject. I’m still undecided on whether this is a practical use for the day to day world of business. This process is part of the bread and butter of DAMA, but I have not seen anyone use these diagrams in the wild before.

Overall though as I mentioned, it does have some fantastic information tucked inside it. This is the certification I am hoping to achieve before November and then I can work on finishing my MCSE. As I work through this, here are the other resources I’m using to study besides the DAMA DMBOK2 book:

https://www.mytechnotes.biz/2018/08/how-to-prepare-for-dama-dmcp-exam-my.html

https://dama.org/sites/default/files/CDMP%20Self%20Study%20Extra%20Reading%20Recommendations.pdf

http://dama-phoenix.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/DAMA-Phoenix-DMBOK2.pdf