BI Education - BI Graduations in Portugal

Today I will talk about two universities that marked me a lot and currently are betting strong in the Business Intelligence area... These two universities are located in two different cities and separated by 300 km between Porto (North) and Lisbon (South). The reason for this post is not only because they are the main universities in Portugal going in deep Business Intelligence area, but also the contribution they gave me all my life since 1995.

I have great affection towards these two institutions, both have a very important role in my personal and professional development. At “Universidade Portucalense” (UPT) I finished my degree in 2001 while in the “Instituto Universitario de Lisboa” (ISCTE-IUL) I am currently finishing my dissertation included in my master BI degree began in 2007.

UPT – Universidade Portucalense

The UPT prepared me for life with its entire rigor, exigency and the indescribable quality of the teachers. In this University nothing failed ... everything worked ... I dare to say that this university has the better organization and installations.
I was at the age of responses to WHY… Why I need to study? Why I need to learn some contents? Why…Why…?

ISCTE-IUL – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa

The ISCTE-IUL helped me to improve my skills and to be more organized, more focused on the benefits and objectives to be achieved. Also helped me to understand the others and myself.

I was at the age of responses to HOW… How can I be a better Professional? How can I do the things more efficiently? How…? How…?

In UPT time the contact to the teachers was very difficult… otherwise today you can catch them by email or by mobile… It’s the evolution… The old and current students should be proud of these two universities that after so many years are still here helping us to be better professionals.

If you want to improve your competencies or start a new path, the registrations for business intelligence graduations are open. Visit the universities websites:

BI Conference - SQL Bits & Tech-Ed Europe 2009

Just to let you all know that some interesting events are coming… and the dates for the two events that I’m currently writing are... next November 2009.

SQLBits (19-21 November 2009)

Thursday 19th Pre-conference Training Day

Friday 20th SQL 2008 & R2 Conference Day

Saturday 21st Free Community Conference

“This is the biggest event yet, with 3 days of top quality SQL Server content. It starts with the pre-conference training day on Thursday 19th, more details coming soon. We have had a lot of feedback about weekday versus weekend during previous events so this time we have added a paid conference day on the Friday 20th, with a SQL 2008 and R2 theme. Finally we have the free Saturday community day, with speakers from around the world covering all manner of SQL Server topics.” By SQLBits

Tech-Ed 2009 Europe/Berlin (9-13 November 2009)

Business Intelligence Track

“Now more than ever, your business needs a quick means of getting the right information to the right people so that they can make smarter, more informed decisions. Microsoft’s Business Intelligence solutions enable you to do just this. The Business Intelligence track offers sessions covering how to integrate, analyse, and report on all of your corporate data easily using the Microsoft Business Intelligence platform, end-user tools, and analytics applications. Learn how to build custom, robust Business Intelligence solutions using Microsoft® SQL Server® 2005 and 2008 (Integration Services, Analysis Services, and Reporting Services), Microsoft® Office PerformancePoint™ Server 2007 (Monitoring, Analysis, and Planning) and the 2007 Microsoft® Office system (Microsoft® Office Excel®, Excel Services, and Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server technologies) and how to easily manage them” by Microsoft

I’ll try to be in the both events. If you are thinking to attend one of these events, let me know to organize the trip or to meet you there!

TDWI - The importance of BI Standards

As you have noticed from previous posts, I appreciate a lot all the work that is being doing by TDWI ... not only for their great organization but also for its importance in the creation of standards that everyone can follow and speak the same "language". As I have already said earlier, I am currently preparing for the global certification of TDWI Business Intelligence in Germany ... when I feel prepared I take a flight and go to Germany and make the exams… of course with my princess because Business Intelligence only makes sense to me with the unconditional support of my princess Joana.

But not moving too much from the main reason of this post, I want to share with you some interesting posters from TDWI that you should print. Attention… follow this mind map or other posters from TDWI but not be a fundamentalist… you don’t need to follow all this approaches in details, because each project is different and the requirements as well.

TDWI's BI Usability poster visualizes all the elements that contribute to making a BI solution "usable." The mind map clusters the attributes into four categories, each of which has multiple branches that support related attributes. The four categories of usability are: Change Management, Architecture, Support and Analysis/Design.

The poster also depicts the dynamics of BI growth and decline using a model from systems theory. The model shows that usability is one of several key leverage points that BI managers can use to alter systems dynamics and move a program from a negative reinforcing loop to a positive one.

Request your free copy

Also take a look to other posters from TDWI:

Master Data Management

Business Intelligence Maturity Model

Regards,

Pedro