Required Reading II: Electric Boogaloo

I wanted to follow up my previous "required reading" post with a more BI/Consulting directed set of books you should be reading/have read.

The Data Warehouse Toolkit - This is a effectively a Kimball Method primer, from the source himself.  This gives a great survey of the lifecycle and methodology, not to mention a breakdown of dimensional modeling and all it entails.  Coming into BI as a developer, this is where I really learned about the thinking behind ETL processes, and it gave me answers to early challenges in warehouse/datamart modeling.

The Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit - This is the Microsoft-flavored cousin of the previous book, written by Joy Mundy and Warren Thornthwaite (based on the existing book).  The newest version is current through SQL Server 2008 R2, and therefore incorporates discussion/demonstration of some of its cooler new features (the delicious Merge statement, new SSRS goodies, etc.)

Agile Database Techniques - this is a personal favorite, just because I think the Agile methods in general can be applied with success to some types of BI/DW projects.  How's that for a qualified statement, huh?  Seriously, though: experience the pattern of requirements change on a few consecutive projects, and tell me  BDUF isn't contrary to BI goals....  Anway, Scott Ambler is the Agile mouthpiece, so it's great that this book is his. 

 Getting Started in Consulting,  Million Dollar Consulting - Have to recommend Alan Weiss for consulting books.  His materials are a lot more utilitarian than many business books.  Less cheese-moving, more concrete examples of Things You Should Do.  The two titles listed above are the ones from which I got a lot.

OK, that's enough reading for now.  :)

 

SQL Server File Size management

Here's a link I found that was super-helpful in the course of doing some analysis/investigation for a client:

http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/database-administration/managing-data-growth-in-sql-server/

Great DBA advice and techniques for managing file sizing and growth in SQL Server.  I was able to use a bunch of this information when I evaluated the client's situation.

Required General IT Reading

The vast field of IT books has a slew of timeless classics in it, all of which  should be read by anybody intending to be worth their salt as a technical professional.   

But in fact, I seem to encounter less and less discussion/mention of these kinds of books as the blogosphere inflates and the Tweets zip overhead.

So, a few of those in particular I wanted to mention here, as a curmudgeony sort of move:

The Mythical Man-Month (Frederick Brooks) - This is a classic about the human aspects of developing software.  You need this, critically.  Buy it now.

Code Complete (Steve McConnell) - The definitive distillation of programming style and consideration.  For your colleagues, for the future, for God's sake -- read this and absorb it if you ever do any coding.   And don't think you know better.  Because you probably don't.  Sorry.

An Introduction to General Systems Thinking,  The Secrets of Consulting,  Becoming a Technical Leader: An Organic Problem-Solving Approach (Gerald M. Weinberg) - Gerry Weinberg is one of the great unsung heroes in the history of software development.   All his books are chock full'o'wisdom for any kind of systems developer or engineer.  Not to mention his consulting expertise.

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum (Alan Cooper) -  A definitive treatise about bad user interface design in modern technology.  Must-read.  Really, this has saved me some rewrite work over the years.

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software  (Richard Helm) - A little more down in the details than the rest of these tomes, this one is valuable not just for the specific patterns described, but for illuminating the whole idea that there ARE patterns in the software game...

 So check these out.  All of them definitely affected my thinking and behavior over the course of my career -- in positive ways.  Next time, some more specific BI and Consulting book recs.

An Introduction

Ahoy there, I'm Andy Tegethoff. 

Lothario, roustabout, no-good-nik, bass player, consultant.  Call me what you will.  :) 

I have a loving family consisting of a wife and two boys, and I've got about a dozen years in the IT game in Metro Atlanta, with the last 4 of them spent as a Business Intelligence consultant.   Prior to that I did software development in a number of environment and across several platforms.  Chiefly, from a technical perspective, I was a solid VB/C# guy who knew programming for both Oracle and SQL Server better than most.  I spent time in the trenches, survived Y2K and the DotCom flameout; I'm one of the "good ones" in IT.   

Not that I am a techie by birthright.  I got my BA in English Lit/Psychology, and have been a would-be rock star for more like 20 years.  I was always more of a Drama or Band geek than a Math geek.  However, as it turns out, the TRS80 CoCo I got for Christmas when I was 9 shaped my destiny beyond allowing me to write a Light Cycle videogame.... 

But as Dr. Evil would assert, "the circumstance of my upbringing are quite inconsequential."  Neither here nor there.  A topic for a later post (I can't give it all away now).  The overall point is, once I entered the working world I found quickly that I could do tech work and yet interact comfortably with actual human businesspeople.  Which is a bit of an edge it seems.

In 2006 I started work for a consulting company called Northridge Systems (a Microsoft Partner with practices specializing in custom Dev, SharePoint, creative design, and BI).   While I began at NR doing web and Windows dev work, the opportunity arose for me to join the firm's nascent BI team.  So after examining my options, I jumped at it.  As I said previously, I was the SQL expert in most programming situations in my career, anyway.  Plus I was burnt out on pure dev, and wasn't seeing a clear career path that I liked from that position.

BI, on the other hand, seemed relatively glamorous, and well-suited to my particualar strengths.  I liked the "mo-money" aspect for sure, and I also liked the prospects career-wise.   But it turns out it was kind of a "through the looking glass" type thing.  Like parenting or owning a luxury yacht.  I didn't really understand my situation until I was in the middle of it.  And it took some getting used to. 

But now I've feel like I've really found a professional niche, one reasonably safe from outsourcing due to cultural necessities, and narrow enough to be either unappealing or unattainable to many in the industry.  I like doing it, and I think I have a great aptitude for consulting.  BI work is much more strategic than the Dev work I used to do, and the communication aspects are so critical, that I feel like it really fits my skill set well.

So I've decided to start a blog where I can potentially share my insights (for what they're worth) from my BI consulting experiences.  The blog title (with tongue securely in cheek) is pretty accurate.  I'm really aiming to keep this largely above the technical fray, and more about the "philosophical conundra" of BI.  I think so much of what BI is about gets lost in those details that I'd like to make it about what role business intelligence can/should play in the enterprise, how to make it work, etc. 

So we'll see how it goes.  Hope to see you around.  Perhaps later we'll enjoy pie.