At the same time, many people choose computer programming because it is not a deep or multi faceted subject as that of chemistry, physics or other material sciences. While computer science has its own theories, it is not the center of the world for computer programming. Many enjoy computer programming for its physical, hands on approach.

One of the things that can make earning a computer programming degree much easier is a natural tendency for paying attention to detail. Unknown to many, computers are simple machines that will only do as they are instructed. A programmer whose job is to set forth directives knows that leaving out even the smallest part of information can cause major problems.

Another helpful skill to have is that of a good memory. The number of variables that go into a computer program concerning syntax, functions, bugs, solutions and much more can be quite staggering. However, the more information and data one can remember on their own, the more successful their career will be.

Some would say the most crucial skill for this line of work is being able to keep a number of complex working systems in mind all at once. While this will take some time and skill to master, it is one of the great traits of a computer programmer. This ability to think abstractly can help with programs exhibiting up to 1,000,000 or more lines of code.

Typically, a Bachelor’s degree is required for many entry-level positions in this field. Those who graduate with a Bachelor’s degree will have training in analytics and the implementation of computer systems as well as maintenance and even design. With this type of computer programming degree one may find themselves with career opportunities in software programming, network programming or website programming.

A master’s degree in computer programming allows graduates to implement high-level software programs. Because of the ever-changing world of technology, they often design software for business environments that greatly rely on technology as well. While being trained in a number of different programs, those with Master’s degrees also put their leadership skills into use as the head or director of IT departments.

Whether opting for a Bachelor’s or Master’s, many in this field find they have the benefit of one of the highest earning powers of any industry available. With such a heavy dependence on computers and technology, the demand for such professionals is in just about every area on the map. There is no doubt that this is a strong profession with a solid future.

This type of degree means always getting to be at the forefront of the latest changes. Programmers must also earn certifications in certain programs and update them regularly to keep up with the newest technologies. Many in this field enjoy the opportunity to continue learning and the ongoing training needed in this fast paced world.

A computer programming degree encompasses so much that many in this field find their career constantly evolving right along with technology. There are so many different areas in which to branch out and grow, there is no worry of ever becoming bored or getting stuck in a rut. Programmers have the fulfillment that comes with seeing their work have a positive effect.

Leaning art on the wall

The wall isn’t the only place where you can display art. You can simply place the picture on the floor and lean it on the wall or furniture. Try placing two art pieces of different sizes, one leaning over the other, partially covering the other one but still leaving most of the art visible.

Placing art on a shelf or gallery ledge

You can mount a gallery ledge on the wall and place pictures across the entire length of it. Randomize the arrangement of pictures by having some of them slightly overlap each other. Use pictures of different sizes and put the smaller sized pictures in front. This can also apply to placing pictures on the shelf above the fireplace.

Use creative hanging apparatus

Instead of mounting your art directly onto to the wall, use a hanging apparatus to hang your art. This can be done by mounting a horizontal bar against the wall close to the ceiling. Support your picture with 2 ropes. Tie one end of the rope to each corner of the picture and knot the other end around the horizontal bar. You can hang 2 or 3 pictures next to each other this way to make it look like a contemporary art gallery installation. Displaying art this way saves your wall from unsightly holes drilled into them.

Use ribbons to suspend art

Use 2 or 3 ribbons with thick widths running down half to three quarters the length of the wall. Attach one or two pictures one above the other to the ribbons and just let it hang. Suspending pictures from ribbons this way adds a unique touch to your home decor. Use ribbons with complimentary themes, like floral motifs. If you want to display art this way, use pictures that are light in weight so that they can be supported by the ribbons.

Another creative way of using ribbons to suspend your art is to use one ribbon for each picture. Fix one end of the ribbon at some point on the wall near the ceiling and loop the other end through both corners at the top of the picture. Then tie the remaining end of the ribbon back onto the main length of the ribbon. Adjust the ribbon so that the portion supporting the picture looks like a triangle shaped hanger. Just let the picture suspend against the wall like that. Make sure also, that the strength of the ribbon can support the weight of the picture.

Keep it all level

If you’re aligning a series of pictures on the wall, draw an imaginary line across the wall to use as a guide. Use a small leveling gauge to check that the pictures are level once they are hung.
To avoid the pictures from tilting to one side, stick some double sided tape or adhesive clay to the side corners to secure it to the wall.

Marching orders such as these need to be carefully planned and constructed to ensure successful completion of a required process, in a way that is consistent and compliant with company policy and best practices.

The field of Data Warehousing (or On-line Analytical Processing – OLAP) is similar to other automated application systems in that it involves the development of databases and software in order to provide some useful and reliable service to its business users.

This document outlines the Process for BI Development and follows industry standard practices, base on the Kimball methodology.

Conventional systems usually have a specific role to play by providing defined functionality that is tied to business processes and that can be preformed repeatedly with virtually the same outcome using, of course, different data and different selections of tasks and operations to be performed. OLAP based systems tend to fall into a rather different category than the general business application. Although it is known what kind of operation and process an OLAP system can be asked to perform, these are not usually mapped to a specific business process. It is much more about exploring data and discovering previously unknown or unrecognized facets of the business and being able to further investigate the data based on such discoveries.

These fundamental differences in the way Data Warehousing and OLAP are employed within an organization are what make the development process also differ from the approach use in developing conventional applications.

The panel that follows lists the main steps in a process for BI development. Please note that ‘Requirements Gathering’ and Testing have been omitted from the list but will be discussed below.

The major components of the Process for BI Development

Characterize the Environment.
Establish Development Road map.
Perform Data Profiling
Perform Data Analysis.
Perform Dimensional Modeling.
Design ETL (Extract, Transform and Load).
Design Analytics and Presentation.
Configure Data Management.

Choice of Platform

There are different platforms, and toolsets on the market and a process for the development of a DW and BI solution should be relatively neutral in this respect. However, there are points in this document where reference is made to the Microsoft BI platform, specifically to the use of Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Excel. These products also represent the platform upon which the measuregroup™ framework is built and to which several measuregroup™ tools are applicable.

Requirements Gathering

A project deliverable with a name along the lines of ‘Functional Requirements Specification’ or ‘Business Requirements Document’ is typically created by a Business Analyst, at or near the beginning of most conventional application development projects. In the case of the BI Project, However, there is less need for a specification of functionality.

This because the DW and BI facilities are not normally in place to map against a particular ‘Business Process’. They are not typically performing set-piece functions as in the case of conventional applications. The need for specification is at a somewhat higher level of generality and speaks more to the scope and treatment of the data that is to be included in the facility.

For the main part, then, it is probably better to eliminate the document that is defined as something to do with ‘function’ and concentrate more on scoping the data landscape to be addressed by the DW solution.

Testing

Who could imagine the development of anything that involves data design, programming and implementation on computers without some form of testing being performed on the delivered system.

Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence software is no less likely to suffer from logic errors or even simple typographical errors that would render the system far less useful if they were delivered to the customer. These programs need testing just as much as any other software genre.

What is different, though, is the fact that, as stated previously, we are not programming against a set of business functional requirements. This means that the ‘best practice’ of designing our test specifications against the requirements may not be possible in the same way. They are never the less, still possible to create and execute.

What we need to do, is test the programs against the job that is specified for them to do, and that job is specified in a slightly different way. Instead of business requirements we are faced with technical specifications telling us that certain data has to be copied from its initial location, possibly reconfigured in some way and then deposited in some new and exotic ‘Dimensional Model’

The specification for what has to happen in this process is coming not from the business users but from the Data Warehouse Architect and Dimensional Modeler.

It is a common mistake for teams not experienced in DW/BI development to assume that the development process is just like any other they have encountered involving conventional applications. Herein, lies one of the many pitfalls that await the uninitiated.

Business User Expectations

It may be better to think of the BI development effort as being something that is part of the technical ‘back-room’ of IT. Something like the business of ‘back-up’, ‘high availability’ or ‘disaster recovery’.

The direction given us by our business sponsors is more along the lines of requests for the availability of certain data, in forms that make it efficient for use with certain tools, created or purchased externally.

That is really what OLAP technology is about. The presentation (or analytic) tools are designed to provide a wide range of generic operations on your company’s data but first you must get the data into the Dimensional Model to facilitate the use of such tools. Quite how you go about that is not for the business user to worry about, just so long as you make it work, efficiently, accurately, in a timely manner and with usability high on the list of priorities.

..to be continued in Part Two of ‘How do I Implement Business Intelligence?’.

MeasureGroup™ co-founder, president and CEO, Derek A. Ashton is a career professional with more than forty years of IT experience. He was the designer of the world’s first ATM for TSB Bank (now Lloyds). Mr. Ashton has been a speaker to audiences at major venues on Software Process Improvement and worked directly on all of the company’s Data Warehouse assignments, either in a leadership role or as the DW Architect.

The products offered by MeasureGroup™ are actually the result of developments made by the company, to reduce repetitive workload and provide well-tested components for DW/BI Initiatives, delivered to clients over the past ten years.

Carrying a 100% money-back guarantee of satisfaction, MeasureGroup™ DW/BI software tools and products cost little, save a lot and deliver it all.

http://www.measuregroup.com

IBM’s Systems Network Architecture (SNA) is a protocol stack that IBM developed to address networking deficiencies that were prevalent at the time of its creation in 1974. Several large hardware and software vendors provide SNA gateways that connect LAN-based PCs with IBM host systems running SNA (Systems Network Architecture) protocols, including IBM, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard.

In the 1990′s, fueled by a Gartner Group report stating that “users with SNA as their primary protocol will spend a total of 20% more than IP users on training staff, hardware and software purchases, and administration”, organizations began to migrate to Internet Protocol based networks.

Now available on the market are non-invasive integration server solutions that allow customers to replace costly, aging SNA solutions with programmatic access to host-based applications at the data stream layer over an IP network. The host applications will traditionally be using 3270 (IBM Mainframe or zSeries) or 5250 (IBM AS/400 or iSeries) protocols and using LU types 0, 1, 2 or 3. A class library can be used to simply expose the information contained in these protocols to the customer’s application prior to the construction of the screen and print buffers. This should not be compared to “screen scraping” API’s such as HLLAPI or Object API offered by most terminal emulation vendors.

Typical customer applications requiring this interface are found in the banking and financial worlds, especially where the migration from SNA to IP networks has not yet been fully achieved. With the current state of the economy, some of the largest banks in the United States are now using this technology to eliminate thousands of servers and realize considerable savings in the process.

Many organizations continue to use host printing, whether from an IBM zSeries mainframe, iSeries AS/400 midrange or UNIX server. Using this type of programmatic IP-based integration solution, a developer could take a standard IBM 3287 LU 1 or 3 mainframe host printer session and programmatically output the information to multiple formats, including PDF, HTML, fax or file. This requirement can be found in banks, hotels, car rental agencies, hospitals, universities and state and local governments that continue to use host applications and need to output statements, receipts, invoices, reservations, class schedules, tax information, etc. in multiple output formats.

Using the LUA-RUI interface, existing LUA-RUI applications can be migrated from older, expensive SNA hardware and software solutions. Using the LUA RUI interface permits more control in customer applications by providing methods to handle exception requests, minimize LAN traffic through program design and recover from session failures.