Preprocessed Aggregates: Data Aggregates in the cubes that are calculated ahead of time and stored within the cube itself are known as Preprocessed Aggregates.

Cube: A Cube is a structure that contains a value for one or more measures for each unique combination of the members of all its dimensions.  These are detail or leaf-level values.  The cube also contains aggregated values formed by the dimension hierarchies or when or more of the dimensions is left out of the hierarchy.

Data Mining: Data mining uses a complex mathematical algorithm to sift through detail data to identify patterns, correlations, and clustering within the data.

Data Warehouse: A collection of data, from a variety of sources, organized to provide useful guidance to an organization’s decision makers

Data Mart: A Data Mart is a body of historical data in an electronic repository that does not participate in the daily operations of the organization. Instead, this data is used to create business intelligence.  The data in the data mart usually applies to a specific area of the organization.

Measure: A Measure is  a numeric quantity expressing some aspect of the organization’s performance.  The information represented by this quantity is used to support or evaluate the decision making and performance of the organization.  A measure can also be called a fact.

Dimension: A Dimension is a categorization used to spread out an aggregate measure to reveal its constituent parts.

Attribute: An Attribute is an additional piece of information pertaining to a dimension member that is not the unique identifier or the description of the member.

Hierarchy: A Hierarchy is a structure made up of two or more levels of related dimensions.  A dimension at an upper level of the hierarchy completely contains one or more dimensions from the next lower level of the hierarchy.

Star Schema: A Star Schema is a relational database schema used to hold measures and dimension in a data mart.  The measures are stored in a fact table and dimensions are stored in dimension tables.

Data cleansing: Data Cleansing removes inconsistencies and errors from transactional data, so it has the consistency necessary for use in a data mart.

ETL:  The Extract, Transform and Load(ETL) process extracts data to copy from one or more OLTP systems, performs any required data cleansing to transform the data to a consistent format, and loads the cleansed data by inserting it into the data mart.

KPIs: Key Performance Indicators are highly summarized measures designed to quickly relay the status of that measures.  They actually reflect the most vital aspects of the organization.

Latency of BI: The latency of Business Intelligence is the amount of time between the occurrence of a transaction and the loading of that transaction’s information into the business intelligence system.

OLTP: Online Transaction Processing systems record business interaction as they happen.  They support day-to-day operations of an organization.

OLAP:  Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) systems enable users to quickly and easily retrieve information from data, usually in a data mart, for analysis.  OLAP systems present data using measures, dimensions, hierarchies, and cubes.

Transactional Data: The Transactional Data is the information stored to track the interaction, or business transactions, carried out by an organization.

Detail or Leaf-Level Value: A measure value that exists at an intersection of all the dimensions is called a detail or leaf-level value.

Multidimensional Database: A multidimensional database is structured around measures, dimensions, hierarchies, measures, dimensions, hierarchies and cubes.

NOTE: This post will be continuously updated as and when I learn more and more terms.  Thank you for your patience.

Or

Business Intelligence (BI) refers to skills, processes, technologies, applications and practices used to support decision making.(Source: wiki)

BI uses technologies, processes, and applications to analyze mostly internal, structured data and business processes.

There are bunch of other videos online explaining the definition of Business Intelligence.  However I felt this video to be more simple and yet clear in understanding.

To facilitate effective decision making there are different BI technologies available to process and analyse different Business processes and transactions to present future desired business outcomes. 

All the BI technologies uses BI Tools that are like software applications designed to report, analyse and present data.

The common functions of BI technologies can be listed as below:

1. Reporting
2. Online analytical processing(OLAP)
3. Analytics
4. Data mining
5. Business performance management
6. Benchmarking
7. Text mining 
8. Predictive analytics

 The famous proprietory BI tools are listed below how ever a comprehensive list can be found( here)

1. Cognos(IBM)
2.  Hyperion(ORACLE)
3. SQL SERVER Analysis and Reporting services(MICROSOFT)
4. Sybase
5. Teradata
6. Business Objects(SAP)

 BI tools use information stored in Data Warehouses and Data Marts but all tools do not require them.

Well I have started preparing for SQL Server Certification Examination.  I have thought something different this time with preparting for my exam.  The Idea of Collaboration is no new in this Information Age.  However I thought if we collaborate via blog and start working on SQL server certification together, which would be remarkable and exciting.

I will be posting series of blog posts for SQL Server Certification Preparation titled “SQL Server Certification Prep”.  During my series of posting I am anticipating more and more people to collaborate and share their thoughts and ideas.

Please give your feedback on this I need help !!

Do I need a certification ?  Probably the most confusing question for professional.  I would advice that you would be better than most of your colleagues if you had a certification in your profession.  Research after research have proven that employees with certifications are better professional than one without.

Is having knowledge more important than performing a job efficiently?  In the long run I would go for the later one of course.  I would likely hire a person who performs his/her job with more accuracy and efficiency.  If you have certification than eventually you become more productive than the guy with more knowledge.

I always tend to work the harder way out rather than doing same thing simpler and faster.  Whereas my boss always want efficiency and accuracy?  I don’t like the way I work but sometimes I need to finish more tasks.  And then I think that doing more work is being more efficient which is a destructive thought.  Since now I am preparing for .NET certification I have felt that If I start my job all over again then I would have done those tasks much quicker.

I am a part of Association of Systems Management at University of Toledo as VP of Finance.  During spring 09 we invited Keith Fournier, a distinguished speaker  from MeyerHill Lynch, located in Ohio.  What a remarkable speaker and an inspiring professional?  He had number of certifications attached to his name.  We simply asked do we really need certifications if we can do our jobs better.  He said yes you need to have those if you need to prove your are efficient.

Higher Salary and  Higher job security

Keith said “More letters in front of the name = Higher Salary” during speech while recollecting his memories from his early days.  How many times you came across a job that matched your skills to required one.  Probably very few!  On top of that even it matched your not confident enough to that you can make it.  If you had a certification your chances of getting job would be higher.

How about renewing your certification?  Renewing your certification is absolutely as important as getting one.  If you renew your certification you are not only renewing your certification but also your skills, renewing your image to management that your willing to learn and adapt to changes.  Companies want to be more efficient than before.  Have you ever heard a company saying “We are likely to post a loss next quarter because we are not efficient as we used to in past”.

Your company would like to improve performance and so would like efficient employees.  If you are not efficient than you used to be than they don’t need you any more or during next pay rise your list might not be there.  If you have a certification then more likely your job will be secure.

If you feel that you want to work for so and so company, work hard on your skills so that they will start looking for you.

For a novice developer knowing primary and most expected skills is very necessary.   As per my experience I would highly recommend to take certification in the field of your choice.

A great developer is an expert in his/her domain, eg.  If one is C# developer then one would be an expert on C# developer.  Of course they know other skills set as well but they are known for what they are great at.  I can mention few names who are MVPs(Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional) like Pinal Dave of SQLAuthority.com, Scott Mitchell of 4guysfromRolla.com and I can go on. But when I think of Pinal, I can only think one thing and that is SQL, and when I think of Scott I think ASP.NET.  They have mastered their domains.

2. Community Involvement

Think of an MVP, he/she will be an active member of a community related to their domains of expertise.  In technology and in world there are different ways of doing same things.  As in programming or developing same thing could be done more efficiently.  Through active participation you learn tricks and tips that you will rarely learn somewhere else.  Through Communities you will get a chance to interact with expert speakers and developers.

3. Leverage Benefits of Social Media

Most of the programmers and developers have their own websites, blogs, forums or discussion boards.  Or atleast they participate in one of them.  With this kind of participation developers gain and give maximum.  We don’t want to be selfish and just take benefits from what others have contributed.   Sharing your best techniques could solve someone’s problem.

4. Accept Challenges

My Professor Dr. Ahmed mentoined about a national research conducted on developers.  The research was about how can you increase productivity of a developer and the result was to provide them with toughest challenges to work with.  Great developers will take challenges and work hard to make it happen.  They will never give up untill they have found a way to figure it out.

5.  Flatten their learning curve

With website development or software development every once in a while a new technology or a standard is about to change the industry.  Its quite possible that if you do not know that skill set  then most likely you will not survive the next recession.   Developers have understood that there is one that is constant with technology which is Learning is constant.  Great developers will easily learn new technology, find ways to improve their existing skills, attend conferences and follow trends.  They will try to decrease their learning curve as much as possible with new technology.

There are tons of websites and blogs out in the free space explaining crazy .NET concepts.  Some of the websites are very good at giving you the right content.  Some forums are very active and some are not.

Every programmer needs a one stop solution where he or she can find out answers quickly.  But it depends a lot on what one is looking for. For a novice developer, wouldn’t be great if he/she knew all the handy websites while searching something.  Below are listed my top 10 favorite asp.net websites.

The websites below are just listed in order but do not reflect their rankings in anyway.  The solutions provided in these websites might work out for you but might not be the appropriate solution for your website.  I advice to experiment on a sample website first and then implement code into your project.

1.  www.asp.net

Tip: Very good website for a starting point.  I have learn many things and much more through videos on this site.  However I rarely recommend you get anything useful in the forums sections.  The user interface in asp.net/forums is not up to the mark.

2. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx

Tip: This is an encyclopedia of Microsoft technologies explained in detail.  I guess there is every piece of functionality explained here.  I advice you to get familiar with the navigation menus, as it will be difficult to find the right stuff you are looking for.

3. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/rampup/default.aspx

Tip: Rampup, aptly named, gives you flexible learning interface through via any medium(doc,video, audio, podcast, slide shows).  Important thing it’s free.  Get the most use of the material and you will get reward at the end.

4. http://4guysfromrolla.com/

Tip: This website gives you the right information and with almost accurate code.  I don’t like the navigation in the website.  Becomes difficult to find sometimes.

5. http://Codeproject.com/

Tip: Codeproject : Simply great website and I have found their code most useful.  Codeproject rocks.  Would be great if the interface would be less cluttery.  C# sharp developers if your are hearing.

6. http://aspalliance.com/

Tip: Aspalliance does a fairly decent job at providing you the necessary code.  However I don’t visit it often.

7. http://Csharpcorner.com/

Tip: For all the C# developers C# is the website you should look for.

8. http://sitepoint.com/

Tip: Sitepoint provides content but not something you can easily sort out.  It will take hell out of you if you need to copy a code in your project.

9. http://asp101.com/

Tip: Another wonder from internet.com.  A child website of internet.com just like Http://4guysfromrolla.com provides you appropriate content your looking for.

10.  http://akadia.com/

Tip: This is my personal favorite because it gives you the content in the most simplest form html, less cluttery and neat.  A must look for.

These are some of my favorite websites which might work out for you.  Please share your personal favorites here so that we all can benefit from it.