ITM535 MOD1 SLP 1: Business Intelligence Software

Module 1 - SLP
Business Intelligence Overview
The purpose of the Session Long Project in Trident University classes is to give you the opportunity to explore the applicability of the Module to your own life, work, and place in space and time, and to experiment with the Module to see how the otherwise academically rigorous presentation of a topic may, with more or less work and/or trauma, become "up close and personal". This is done in a number of different ways—sometimes cumulative papers, sometimes practical hands-on experimentation with a tool of some sort, sometimes reflections on a place of work or life. The common thread is personal application, aimed at demonstrating a cumulative knowledge and understanding of the course's material.
In this course, the Project assignments for each Module will involve experiencing and analyzing demo programs for a variety of software applications in the business intelligence/data management domain. The range of software is so great and our course so limited that in-depth training on one or two applications is not really useful; rather, you'll have a chance to experiment with many programs over the term. You may or may not actually be in the market for such software. If you are, it will give the reconnaissance through the field some additional value; if not, you probably will be at some point soon, and you'll have a leg up on your search.
For this course, the Project will take the form of encounters with online tools and resources of several forms. Each Module will feature some website to visit, occasionally some tool to download and experiment with, or some demo to experience, in search of enlightenment about the kinds of resources available to IT professionals in our increasingly information-rich but sometimes painfully crowded professional community. It's almost inevitable that for any given Module, some of the class members will already have had experience with the "tool of choice"; when it happens to you, please resist the temptation to lay into the faculty with a claim that we're not teaching you anything new; we assure you that even if it's known to you, it is NOT known to a good many of your colleagues, and they'll be glad for the lead. If you do have such experience, regard it as a minor gift of time from the Powers in charge of Session Long Projects; the write-up will be a piece of cake for you. You can use your spare time to dig further into another site or tool, or even to use the Discussion forum to share your experience and evaluations with your colleagues.
So—that's the general SLP strategy. If you have questions at any point about what to do or how to strategize your exercise, please contact your instructor for illumination.
The principal focus for our software safari will be software demos:
http://www(dot)oracle(dot)com
http://www(dot)arcplan(dot)com
http://www(dot)entsoftsol(dot)com/
https://www(dot)atlassian(dot)com/software/jira/demo
https://www(dot)infusionsoft(dot)com/demo
http://www(dot)hesk(dot)com/demo.php
http://www(dot)sas(dot)com/en_us/software/business-intelligence/visual-analytics/demo.html
or other demos that interest you.
Each module, you'll be given a set of categories relevant to the Module's topic, and invited to try 2-3 of them. They vary considerably; some are downloadable, some operate on-line. Some are far-reaching, some are fairly lame. But collectively, they will give you a chance to see the range of software that's out there.
Most online demo sites, when we encounter them, will require you to enter a name and an email address by way of registration. To avoid getting solicitations through your mail email account, try using a pseudonym and a convenience free email account from Hotmail or Yahoo, or just try some other one. To gain access to the demos you need to fill out a form. Again, using a pseudonym is helpful. Also, select “confidential” for number of employees, annual sales range, and annual revenues plus “Q4 2008” or later for “target installation date”.
In some cases with registration, the email address is requested send a password, generally. It is also possible that you will receive follow-up inquiries from sites that you have visited. If you are not restricted to demos available through this one website; if you know of any other relevant software packages at any point, you may substitute them with the permission of your Core Professor.
If the computer to which you have access is restricted in critical ways in terms of what you are at liberty to download and use (because of capacity, policy and/or security rules, or other factors) then your ability to carry out the assignments as presented may somewhat compromised. Never Fear! TUI is known for its flexibility and ability to reconfigure assignments imaginatively, and we stand ready to help you here as well! Alternatives are available, and while you'll miss some of the learning benefits of the assignment, you can still get a substantial measure. Please let your instructor know as soon as you can if you will be operating under any sort of limitations on your computing capacity, so that you can work out suitable arrangements.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Each Module, your SLP assignment will consist of filling out a report on your "adventures in software," summarizing what you looked at and offering to the degree possible some critical evaluation of it; you'll also be invited to reflect on your cumulative software experiences. As noted, you will be expected to review at least three but probably no more than five demos per module. In addition, each Module calls for a short summary review of the state of your learning about software up to that point. Use this example to model your response.
Here is an example (much too brief, but it will give you the general idea):
Program Brief description of the program and what it claims to do Specific business needs being addressed by program and value delivered by it Reasons you decided to check it out Your overall evaluation of it, to the degree that you can judge; is it something you'd use? Why? (Please comment also on the effectiveness of the demo itself)
ProClarity 6 Explore and gain a better understanding of your data with powerful analytic capabilities and unique data visualizations. Numbers can be hard to interpret; visuals can summarize information and present decision opportunities more clearly, if well done. I'm a believer in graphical displays and strong visuals, and I wanted to see what it offered along those lines Very effective demo using flash graphics—a good feel for what the displays look like and how one might manipulate them. Actual utility of the information generated is not wholly clear; many claims about utility, but would need actual data related to my own decisions to assess further. I'd let someone else buy it first and see how it worked for them.
Cumulative learning We're just getting started, but it looks like an interesting way to get a feel for the kinds of tools out there.
If you have any questions about how this works, check with your instructor.
For Module 1:
Go to the free demos: http://www14(dot)software(dot)ibm(dot)com/webapp/download/byproduct.jsp
Select “Business Intelligence” and choose three of the demos for review. Make sure you include summary statements and comments in “Cumulative learning." (For Module 2, you will select the other two and include concluding remarks in “Cumulative learning.”)
Your assignment will be evaluated based on the Rubric.