WANTED: Your Opinion and Thoughts...

Ok, So I have been a bit slack in the blog department.

I have been finding it hard to break out of the everyday rut of work to post anything.

Well, that has to change. I need to get out of this rut, to challenge myself, to expand my horizons. After all, the project I am working on is quite interesting, why not share?

So I have been thinking... Is anyone out there interested in a daily or weekly email newsletter for BI? Maybe a forum, etc? User donated articles, etc? Sort of like Code Project, except for BI? A place where I can get everyone involved, rather than just myself.

I would like to hear some feedback, as well as thoughts or ideas.

Meanwhile, I have to get back to work. I have an article on the ForEach SSIS Task almost complete. I will try to post it today.

peace

Hug a Developer...

This would be a lot funnier if it weren't so true...




What are your thoughts?

peace

SSIS 2008 Sets Record

First of all, hello from the depths of an enterprise ETL project!

I haven't been working on reporting at all in the last few months, dedicated to ETL and optimization.

Second, I realize that this article is from February, but I thought it was a really good read.
http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlperf/archive/2008/02/27/etl-world-record.aspx

peace

Is the business view of IT changing?

Today, I am going to stray from SSRS again and discuss business.

In my normal batch of morning email, I came across a link to an article
(http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/101607-noncertified-it-pros-better-paid.html) with the headline being: Non-certified IT pros earn more than certified counterparts: survey.

Being a non-certified professional, I was really happy to see that. But after reading it, I realized that the headline was not the only point to the article. It was just the one that would catch people’s eye. For me, the interesting message is that companies are tired of “techies.” They really want business people that can do a technical job.

I have been working with business units for most of my career. My first true technology job offer was: “I can’t get any information out of IT; I want you to work for me, the CFO, and provide me with the reports that I need and can understand.” I understand from the business side how frustrating it is when you ask for a report, and a developer responds with technical jargon about primary keys and cross server queries. The average business person glazes over when they hear the first technical term.

Don’t misunderstand me, I am a technical person. I am a geek. I love the inner workings of almost anything, not just software or gadgets. But first and foremost, I am a business person. I started my first business at age 7, selling lemonade. I made almost $10 in one day! (And I did it without a PC, without a large un-wieldy database application that took 2 years to implement and never worked right, without a tech-head telling me that I shouldn’t even be in business because my network platform was not on the cutting edge.) I have started and run several successful businesses outside of the technology realm, and a couple within. I have been in management, and in the ranks. I have seen a lot from the business side.

So it was refreshing for me to read that more business people want this IT re-alignment. But, I have been hearing this for almost 20 years. Are things really starting to change?

One can hope.


Peace

3 Lessons on Deadlines and Business Requirements

Well, here I am again, back after a "Got to have it now, pull out all the stops" project has been completed.

Let me give you a quick overview:

I had a client come to me on Sept 27th with an urgent request:

"We have a new system going into beta with several very important clients and we need a quick data mart and 2 reports. And we need them by next Tuesday!"

So with a fair amount of skepticism, I accepted the task. After all, this was a client that I have been dealing with for a while, and it was only 2 reports.

So, using SSIS and SQL 2k5, I put together the data mart (I had already been working on some data marts for this client, so I was familiar with their business and data model) and started looking in depth at the reports.

OOOOOPS!! Guess I should have done that first. By looking at the reports I could tell that the users had asked for some reports, the deadline aware project manager talked to the developers, who told the client that they only had time for 2 reports, not the 33 the users originally needed.

This was not 2 reports. It was "let's take all 33 reports, combine all of the parameters and fields and put them on 1 report, and then add 1 because we are allowed to."

So, I naturally did what any decent consultant would do. I balked. Not in a bad way, not rude or condescending, just factual:

While this 1 master report will work, is it really fulfilling the users needs? Do they need 28 parameters in the parameter bar in the SSRS report manager? It takes up 80% of the maximized browser window. How do they view the report? Also, the report is very slow, because you are joining not only fact tables and dimensions, but also different atomic level fact tables. Let's talk to the users to see what they really need.

So we did. And in doing so, we found out that they had indeed been told that they could only have 2 reports. So:

• Lesson #1: If your users tell you they need X functionality, and you restrict them to only Y number of items, they WILL find a way to get X into the Y.

In talking with the user, we also found out that next Tuesday was NOT a hard fast deadline.

• Lesson #2: Given the choice between crap in 2 days and gold in 2 weeks, most users will take the gold.

By giving the users my recommendations, they came to appreciate that someone was looking out for their best interests. They felt comfortable telling me their goals, their needs, as it pertains to these reports. I built up a relationship with these people. In turn, I made sure to try and understand what they needed, and provide it for them.

• Lesson #3: Users are just people trying to get their job done. Respect that.

And they will get it done with or without your software, reports, data, etc. It's your job to make theirs easier, and to contribute to the well being of the company as a whole.

These seem to be pretty basic lessons, right? However, as a consultant, I see these same mistakes being made everywhere. And yet it surprises me every time. We, as an Information Technology industry, should never let these lessons slip from our minds. They are fundamental to our jobs, and to our industry as a whole.

In summary, the users defined 4 reports that would meet their immediate needs, and I was able to produce those reports for the users in a couple of days, and everyone is happy. Sounds like a cheesy movie, huh?

Peace