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The Finish Line... BIMS

It’s been an amazing journey to completing the Business Intelligence Masters of Science program. Reflecting back to the beginning, Mastery was essential to set our goals over the next year. Quickly transitioning into Foundations of Business Intelligence, the next few months provided the comprehensive overview of enterprise solutions for Big Data, data management, business processes and reporting tools and capabilities. My mastery journey timeline had references to reviewing Interactive Project Management and Mining the Social Web, areas that I had though would be complimentary subjects as I would focus on BI technologies and Analytics and how online data is influencing today’s business decisions. In reality, The Data Warehouse Toolkit allowed us to focus on the details for project management and dimensional modeling. It was at this point, when I realized the value of having some degree of programming skills to complement roles in Information Architecture and Database design.

Once foundations were in place, the curriculum really got fun and challenging. The middle stretch of the program from BI Analytics, Data Mining, Patterns & Recognition, and Process Modeling & Analysis were the most interesting for me. Specifically, Patterns & Recognition was the most challenging due to the weekly projects were we had to find real-world data, perform some functional analysis and draw conclusions from our visualizations. I valued the real-world applications and scenarios that we were asked to solve for. The lessons from our Business Statistics will help with future analysis and are applicable in my current job. For Process Modeling & Analysis, I thought it was appropriate that we were asked to create and maintain a website for each week’s assignment and by the end of the month we would have a collection of business reports and analysis for use for our Capstone or portfolio.

From the very beginning, I was really anticipating the final stretch of the program starting with Data Visualization and Creative Reporting and leading through Leadership and Communication, Case Studies and the Capstone. For my mastery journey timeline I wanted to supplement my research by reading Visualize This, so I was pleased to discover that was indeed one of the books for the Visualization course. As a mid-level manager, one area that I’ve been trying to improve upon is my communication skills. Leadership and Communications was exactly the type of course for me to focus on that will produce great dividends as I progress in my career towards leadership.

As for the case studies, I would have preferred something more contemporary. Although, the point of the course was to allow us to work through our data-informed business proposal. I believe this format worked out very well, because each week built on the other. It made the Capstone month much more manageable and enabled me to start to transition from graduate student to BI job seeker. Having the time spent on rebuilding our social profiles, specifically LinkedIn, and building habits for continual career development is smart - and a great use of the final weeks in the course.

All in all, I’m so happy to have set out a goal, a little over a year ago, to dedicate myself to pursue a career in Business Intelligence. Engaging with like minded students within the Full Sail Connect platform was easy and effective. My next steps will be to unify my personal branding online and to “test the waters” by pursuing opportunities with a value in Business Intelligence and Analytics.

#fullsail

Master Journal BIN660

Business Intelligence Case Studies (BIN-660) started with the analysis of DuPont’s Artificial Task Force from mid-to-late 1980’s and provided opportunities to conduct scholarly research on the diverse portfolio that make up DuPont. From the research, we examined and employed business and financial analysis tools including PESTEL, Gap Analysis, Cost-Benefit Analysis and SWOT. These are all tools and processes that I can utilize for current and future business ventures, particularly for justifying investment in a project requiring a financial commitment and allocation of resources that can be applicable to the companies bottom line.

I can reflect on the course and see the value of the way it was structured. Allowing us to apply specific tools and analysis in parts, over two weeks. The first two focused on DuPont, the second two weeks applied to our business/company identified for our final Capstone Project. The culmination of the entire program is captured one-way or another this course. That is very satisfying to see as our data informed proposal is fleshed out.

While I don’t have much experience with the financial application of business planning, haven gone through these exercises and seeing my fellow students ideas and analysis - it has provided me with a great deal of insight on what considerations and actually quantitative attributes are required when crafting a detailed business plan.

I will use the tools I’ve learned from this course to provide more depth for my Capstone project next month.

#fullsail

BIL Journal Entry

Business Intelligence Leadership and Communication is an accurate fit for professional development. It complimented the many leadership-themed training courses that I’ve have the privilege of participating in. Coming into the course, I had specific insight on areas to focus on for my own personal development. My strengths are in demonstrating a high emotional intelligence, thought leadership and motivating others to perform. My weaknesses have been in timely communication and a consistency in my messaging. Through this course, I’ve paid special attention to lessons and supplemental readings on the areas I’ve been trying to improve on.

In the 10 courses, that have been conducted, this one was by far the most engaging. While I could not attend virtual meet-ups, the weekly discussion posts were exceptional and offered unique takes on the lessons. We even had professor Jessup participate along side professor Taylor (lead course instructor). My favorite assignment, the one that still drives my interests for further exploration is with Big Data Ethics.

The course did differ from my expectations as it was less about project management, and more about overall leadership, which is all right with me. Back in September 2014, I had set expectations to explore topics in project management and connecting with executives. This was narrow focused on my part. I’m already doing that as a manager. This course helped me think bigger and project my thoughts on the level of an executive — a true leader.

When determining whether grit is an important ingredient in leadership I believe it is not. The leadership challenge outlines behaviors for an exemplary leader and they include: modeling the way (setting the example), inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process (status quo), enabling others to act, and encourage the heart. While resolve, courage and strength are great characteristics necessary for someone to maintain a passion for a long-term goal and to sustain repeated failures before success — it’s not necessarily a behavioral trait for defining a great leader.

Leadership and communication has been a great course to focus on key leadership skills as we continue our journey into the world of BI.

Reflection: Data Visualization & Creative Reporting

Data Visualization and Creative Reporting was a refreshing course to be apart. The two books, both written by Nathan Yau, were entertaining, informative and relevant for the topic.

In Visualize This, Yau sets the stage for us to become story tellers through data visualizations. We also get an introduction to desktop and web-based technologies to make our visualizations more like art, but without complexities.

In Data Points: Visualizations That Mean Something, Yau writes more for the data scientist. I plan to purchase this book for my own library. While he still interweaves art and design in each of his visualizations, he also helps us understand how to demonstrate trends and patterns for the end users. Going beyond the text books, his website flowingdata.com offers many more resources for the data professional.

Throughout this survey course, more so than any other course thus far, the level of engagement from my peers was exceptional. I got great feedback and suggestions from each participant. In addition, the assignments provided us to be a little more expressive and personal, which was a great departure from the standard business orientated assignments.

The assignment I most enjoyed and will take further is building a responsive dashboard. I got to test my web design skills and use of a jQuery library for creating small visual graphs. While I have a lot to learn as a programmer, the exercise really stretched my skill set, creativity, and interests in the topic.

All in all, Data Visualization and Creative Reporting is easily a course I will continue to take with me in my professional career.

#fullsail

PML Journal

Process Modeling and Analysis was one of the courses that I identified early on as wanting to explore since it applied to processes and functions normally carried out at the managerial and executive level. The course has delivered on demonstrating how Process Simulation Modeling, Enterprise Risk Modeling and optimization apply to a career in business intelligence.

By far, the medium at which we were asked to deliver the weekly assigned project has been my favorite for the entire BIMS program. This month, we built a website integrating and featuring our business model, business process analysis and supporting charts/diagrams. It’s something that I will include in my portfolio upon graduating from the program.

Process Modeling and Analysis covers some topics that were surveyed in previous courses such as balance scorecards, KPI’s, and dashboards. It also went deeper for each of the Modeling and Simulation (M&S) topics just mentioned in other courses. The big take-aways for me was M&S is an application that is utilized at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of an organization. So I will be very familiar with these concepts and usage as I tackle BI projects in the future.

The course is a departure from data mining, visualization and is more suited for business application. It has been a welcome addition towards my Masters in Science for Business Intelligence.

Patterns and Recognition Journal Entry

Patterns and Recognition is the first course, within the second half, of our journey to achieving a Masters in Business Intelligence. Fittingly, it is the first course that really allows us to utilize advanced data-mining techniques to analyze datasets for meaningful business applications.

In the first week, we are challenged to analyze sports performance data and make recommendations for improvement and top placement within the sport closely related to a triathlon. We fundamentally learn the challenges of obtaining and cleansing data for analysis. I chose a sport that I admire, The Masters. In my analysis, I attempted to uncover the variables that would influence a top 10 finish for the major golf tournament held at the Augusta National Golf Club. What I quickly learned is that obtaining sports performance metrics is difficult. And thus, my analysis was not as technical as it could have been.

In week two, our analysis was for the Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) industry. We were asked to evaluate and identify the top trends for the industry, including five companies moving upward in the QSR Top 50 rankings and five companies trending downward. In addition, we had to substantiate a recommendation to invest in one of the restaurant chains using data supporting our analysis. This was an enjoyable assignment as I got to learn about several companies that I admire and enjoy as a consumer. Obtaining data required a lot of cleansing due to the fact that many of the historical records were obtained from PDF documents. I obtained several techniques that will be helpful moving forward and learned a great deal more about some tricks within Excel.

Weeks three and four offered similar assignments. Fundamentally, we looked at the financial segment and were asked to analyze a company and determine if we would recommend them as an investment. To accomplish this, it required much digging for financial data pertinent for analysis. I chose Media General (NYSE:MEG) a media company that I have a great deal of history with and admiration for. In recent years, they have transitioned from a Newspaper and Television media company, to being exclusively a Television based company. Last year, they made a large acquisition which helped their stock and future position to compete in the broadcast industry. Techniques utilized in the analysis included creating candlestick charts to determine growth or decline in their stock price. We also analyzed Media General’s stock over the year for its resistance and support - and learned that it actually broke the thresholds over several weeks when the merger was first announced and later in Q4 as the merger started to take shape. And finally, we created Bollinger Bands with their financial data to determine if future performance of the stock. In my analysis, we could see a pattern in which we would wait for a stabilization of the stock price back towards the 20-day trend and then to sell their stock.

Patterns and recognition is a data mining and visualization course that has helped me identify the outcome of our hypothesis, predictions and historical story of the big data.

Data Mining

The Data Mining course was a focus on data mining tools, techniques and the advanced algorithms used in contemporary business intelligence solutions. I take away from the course a better understanding of the fundamental data mining concepts for clustering, classification, and regression. In previous courses, these techniques were referenced, but never explained in quite the detail that this course offered.

A huge takeaway for me was the requirement for a strong mathematical background for a data scientist that wants to focus on designing and implementing algorithms. In the final assignment we were challenged to review an application in data mining to predict the outcome of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. In my research, I learned of several methods to try to accomplish this with various calculations and algorithms to take into account variables such as rankings, ratings, wins, quality of the opponents, and goal differential. I uncovered five unique methods to design a prediction model for soccer games. Each had various key variables to factor into each calculation. It made me realize that the math required to process the data is complex, time consuming and will have a variety of impact on the statistical significance and accuracy of the results.

Data mining has also reinforced concepts taught in earlier business intelligence courses – particularly ETL processes in a data warehouse. The quality of our mined data and overall benefit can be enhanced through data preprocessing and the stages to obtain clean, consistent data.

One opportunity for future students of this course will be having the opportunity to mine data from test/sample data sets through an application such as Tableau or Statistica. In watching some of the assigned videos and demo’s, it was helpful to see variables manipulated to produce various outputted results and how to visualize the findings.

BI Analytics Journal Entry

My biggest takeaway from Business Intelligence Analytics is the statistical background necessary to develop the strong analytics capabilities sought after for employers of data scientists.

The course textbook Business Statistics: For Contemporary Decision Making, 8th Edition, by Ken Black is well written and thorough. Statistical concepts build on each other. I gained a lot of perspective from each of the chapter’s Business Dilemma case studies and supplemental problems. While the author provides visualizations from popular computer applications, I would have liked to have seen the data in table format, so that I could recreate the graphics in my native application – Tableau.

The course, while very insightful and engaging was a personal challenge. I struggled with condensed format coming right out of the Thanksgiving holiday break. Squeezing four weeks of curriculum into a condensed schedule to fit into a Christmas break while maintaining a full-time managerial job pushed me to my limits. To make matters worse, my entire family fell victim to this year’s flu virus. Personally, I’m relieved to have survived this course curriculum under the circumstances.

Business Intelligence Analytics offered a view into statistical concepts and processes that I will use in the real-world. I was unaware of the difference with visualization techniques for quantitative and qualitative data graphs before taking the course. In addition, I can now make informed decisions based on the basic principles of probability.

Following up on the course, I realize that more work and exposure to the complex concepts such as Bayes’ rule, multiple regression analysis, and Time Series forecasting will be needed. There simply was not enough time to work with scenarios in each of these areas.

Business Intelligence Analytics has indeed introduced me to business process analysis and statistical concepts to make informed decisions and forecasts with information known and unknown.

#fullsail

Mastery Journey: BI Technologies

The fundamental goal of Business Intelligence Technologies was to impart the understanding of data management technologies and processes that support successful BI solutions. We accomplished this through detailed case analysis, extended readings, and long format video webinars on the various topics related to our course outline.

This term was also the first in which we started to explore real-world business analysis processes and methodologies. In week one, we conducted a SWOT analysis comparing several BI vendors. This was a great assignment as we were able to explore Gartner’s Magic Quadrant – a leading BI industry resource to help quickly get educated about competing technology providers and their ability to deliver on end user requirements.

Week two, we considered what business requirements play in the selection process for a BI project. We also got to research and write a research paper on a case study referenced from Rajiv Sabherwal’s, Business Intelligence. The topic I selected was bridged from a case study that spoke on the Deep Web and asked the question, what would be the next big thing. My topic explored just that. I focused on The Internet of Things (IoT). Gartner predicts that the era of Big Data will be dwarfed by IoT with more data being generated from machines, or things, than by human beings. It was a fascinating topic for me to explore.

The later half of the term was extremely busy with two significant writing assignments. The first was a deep analysis for the open source BI vendor Pentaho. In the course of my research, I gained valuable insight to their primary competitors and a better understanding of the appeal to choosing an open source vendor. The final project was a challenging written assignment but very worthwhile. The assignment was to develop a business case for a chosen business or company and demonstrate value for implementing a BI solution. This was the first opportunity to connect the dots. I realized that, if asked to do this task in the real world, it will not be a simple task. This will especially true for enterprises or very large business operations.

Business Intelligence Technologies is the last of our foundational knowledge courses. The material covered has started to transition our understanding from conceptual to applied knowledge.

#fullsail

EDM A Look Back

Enterprise Data Management has far exceeded my expectations. Coming into the course I had notions of learning basic project management and the role it plays with designing a data warehouse and business intelligence solution. My goal was to obtain a core understanding of the various process and industry approaches to data management. I certainly achieved that – and much more.

Kimball’s book, The Data Warehouse and Dimensional Modeling: The Definitive Guide to Dimensional Modeling, is a deep, insightful resource to clearly outline applications and development projects for nearly every conceivable industry where BI solutions can help a business achieve their goals. I will definitely purchase a book to keep on my desk, in close proximity as I move along in this industry.

My greatest take-a-ways from the curriculum included considerations for dimensional model concepts and design, project planning and management, and a comprehensive understanding of the extract, transform, and load (ETL) process.

The exercises and assignments to design dimensional models and fact tables reinforced the deep technical knowledge of the course material. I still believe that I will need to follow-up with additional training and insights for database architecture, SQL queries, and administration. I may not be a database administrator, but I want to fully understand the concepts and considerations required for an enterprise data management project.

For my electronic version of the textbook, I certainly took advantage of highlighting the various tips and special notes offered by Kimball. I found the tips to be relevant to a business use case and not simply theoretical in application.

Finally, I found the final chapter to be quite insightful and relevant to the importance and explosive growth of the Business Intelligence industry. Focusing on the topic of big data and the two prevailing architectural alternatives was really interesting and has spurred a curiosity to want to learn more about the trends for dealing with big data.

#fullsail #businessintelligence

BI Foundations Takeaways

My biggest takeaways from Foundations of Business Intelligence include understanding the four capabilities of Business Intelligence, discovering the technologies enabling BI and considerations for managing business intelligence for the enterprise.

Prior to the course, I had an impression that the curriculum was going to be presented from the perspective of a program or project manager. Project management was discussed throughout the course but not to the level with what I expected. Instead, I preferred the structure of the course material as each chapter built upon the previous.

The case studies were especially effective with helping me understand core concepts. The case study for crime fighting resonated with me the most. I found the subject matter to be a great example of how big data could contribute to decision-making outside of industries typically known to use business intelligence such as retail, financial markets, and logistics.

In addition to the material from the book, I found the assignments to create Visio illustrations to be highly productive for me to learning how an Enterprise Resource Planning solution can be implemented. Having the ability to review my fellow student designs provided alternative perspective from each of the assignments. Their feedback was also useful for me to test new concepts within the application. I can start using Visio in my current employment if needed.

The material for Business Intelligence tools and vendors was insightful. Having the ability to browse case studies and learning about each vendor’s capabilities is starting to paint a picture of how I can design my capstone thesis. Once I can identify the industry and/or company to engage with, I will be able to take a deeper analysis in need, requirements and benefits for any business intelligence solution. Foundations of Business Intelligence also reinforced research methods utilizing the online databases available to us.

#fullsail

If your interested in Business Intelligence, or have school aged children, check out this info graphic and story.

Caught a glimpse of a rainbow over SCAD Museum of Art. Should be a great day in Savannah! #SCADMOA #rainbow

#scadmoa #rainbow

Learn more about me professionally at about.me/robertokvasquez

#fullsail

My Mastery Journey Timeline for Full Sail University's Masters Science Business Intelligence program.

#fullsail

For social media marketers, this is going to be a game-changer. No more contests requiring a "like".

Make Good Art: Advice on the Creative Life

Neil Gaiman Addresses the University of the Arts Class of 2012 from The University of the Arts (Phl) on Vimeo.

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