Portland CDMP Bootcamp

The Portland DAMA Chapter has six new Certified Data Management Professionals after this week's CDMP Bootcamp! The first Portland Bootcamp was held on August 25-26, 2008 at The Standard in downtown Portland, OR. On Day 1, the class drilled through sample questions and discussed topics on the Core I.T. exam in the morning. The collective contributions from the class participants helped everyone gain a better understanding of linear programming, accounting and statistics. For many it was just digging out buried knowledge and remembering it was there! After lunch, the Core I.T. exam was given, and EVERYONE passed at the masters level on the first try! What a confidence builder! After that, the group was ready to tackle the Data Management exam, and after discussing the DM study materials for a couple more hours, the exam was given at 4:30 pm. It was a very long but productive day.

After a long Monday, we decided to start day 2 with some quiet time to take specialty exams first thing in the morning or do some individual studying. Then we covered exam questions for the Data Warehouse exam and had some lively discussions about various aspects of data warehousing, the differences between OLAP, ROLAP, HOLAP and other relevant topics. This group clearly had some experienced data warehousing professionals! We ended the day with more exams for those who still had exams to take or retake. Overall it was a very fun and successful Bootcamp! I invite the participants to stay in touch and share their experiences in comments or guest posts on this blog as well.

Creative Certifying

I am an ICCP exam developer holding a CBIP with a specialization in Data Warehousing and a CDMP. My certification process was quite interesting and looking back on it, a great deal of fun.

I highly recommend the comprehensive resources mentioned in a preceding post "Preparing for CDMP Exams", especially getting your hands on a study guide for the exam you wish to pursue. Outlines for the exams are available and are excellent for understanding the learning track one needs to be on for a particular exam. The links are also quite useful for gathering resources for various computing certifications and I recommend a cup of coffee or hot tea along with at least a couple of hours to peruse the certification sites (DAMA, ICCP, TDWI).

Now lets get back to creative certifying. My experience was a bit unique, I certified as a CBIP at a TDWI conference in Orlando, Florida. Since I was a full time student pursuing my Masters degree I submitted a request to TDWI for a student scholarship to attend the conference. My Data Warehouse professor at Nova Southeastern University, Dr. Phyllis Chasser, graciously provided a letter of recommendation. I was granted a scholarship to attend the classes of my choosing for the full seminar. I carefully reviewed the requirements for the CBIP exam and selected those classes which met the exam requirements along with the exam prep class. At the end of the TDWI seminar I sat for the CBIP exam and passed.

Shortly after the seminar, I perused DAMA's website and decided I would like to become a CDMP, as well. I contacted DAMA to prepare for the exam and learned of a little known fact, in professional circles. A holder of the CBIP certification can transfer those credits to DAMA and for a minimal administrative fee, can qualify for a CDMP certification.

If you are interested in certification and would like to pursue that track with a personal touch please feel free to contact me at adamsfrancine@gmail.com. I'll be happy to point you to the right resources, or the right people to help you get through the process.

On a final note, I had the pleasure of contributing to the Zachman Framework Beta Exam the weekend of August 8 in Montreal. I can quote Eva from the posting Zachman Enterprise Architecture Exam ready for beta! with relish, "Trust me, you WILL want to brush up on your knowledge of the Framework, even if you think you know it well..."

Zachman Enterprise Architecture Exam ready for beta!

On August 8-10, 2008, a team of ICCP exam developers completed a weekend marathon session in Montreal to create the first ICCP certification exam focused on THE ZACHMAN FRAMEWORK FOR ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE™.

The team was comprised of experienced ICCP exam developers Pat Cupoli, Francine Adams, Loretta Smith, Gil Laware, Deborah Henderson and Eva Smith (me), along with subject matter experts John A. Zachman, John P. Zachman (Jr.) and Stan Locke. About 70 questions were submitted by various authors before the session. In over 25 hours of intense discussions, these questions were reviewed in detail, revised and refined by the group. The team also worked together to write more than 4o new questions to complete an initial pool for the 110 question exam. It was quite a memorable experience! :)

The exam will soon be offered as a free beta over the next few months and will be one of the qualifying exams for the CDMP. It covers the latest updates to the Enterprise Architecture Framework, so those interested in taking the exam will want to brush up by studying the most current publications at http://zachmaninternational.com/. (Trust me, you WILL want to brush up on your knowledge of the Framework, even if you think you know it well... Although the basic Framework concepts and principles remain the same, there are some changes in terminology that are covered on this exam.)

Stay tuned for more information about the beta and locations where it will be offered....

First Time In

Thanks for inviting me ! I have been a CMDP ( Masters Level) since 2004 and have just been through the renewal process. It wasn't too painful but there weren't any PDU's available at that time for participation in the organization of Data management - in particular DAMA International. Now there is ! thanks ICCP.