Joe's Mastery Journal

Full Sail University’s “Business Intelligence Capstone” course (BIN680) was an effective way to wrap up an extremely challenging, yet rewarding program. All in all, I’m very glad I embarked on this journey to Business Intelligence under the guidance of the knowledgeable staff at Full Sail University. I am very excited about the prospects of this field and future of data science. According to Figure 1, I missed my goal of sending my Capstone project to the Writing Center for proofreading prior to submitting it for a grade. Due to obtaining employment earlier in the year, I’ve taken a step back on the creation of my LLC during this time. I do, however, plan to roll out my company’s website by the second quarter of next year. My final remaining goal is to properly wrap up my time at Full Sail by reaching out to colleagues about ways to stay in touch. 

To describe what I’ve learned from the content of this program would require an unquantifiable amount of time and space. I’ve learned about the machine and all the components that drive the machine. I’ve learned why the machine exists and the importance of its continued existence. Soon enough, the amount of recorded data in the history of the world will double every two years (Quartz, n.d.). I’m now better equipped to enter and excel in this industry. 

I plan to pursue a handful of certifications related to six sigma, project management, business intelligence, and a few BI solutions. Using what I’ve learned, I plan to obtain a career with a Fortune 500 technology company as a business intelligence (or data) analyst. I also plan to create a data-driven LLC that solves operational issues for local businesses and touring solutions for musicians in the regional independent music industry.  

Thank you for your time, 

Joe S. 

Full Sail University’s “Business Intelligence Case Studies” course (BIN660) far exceeded my expectations. The course demanded more of my time to be invested than I originally anticipated (more than the last few combined), and it happened to coincide rather harmoniously with “peak season” at work. To say the least, I wasn’t expecting to struggle with time management as much as I had during this past month.

Having set these expectations nearly 12 months ago, using nothing more than a class name and summary to work with, it’s slightly difficult to accurately predict exactly what one could anticipate as being realistic goals to achieve. I suppose I was originally expecting to review a few case studies during this month, instead of just one (being DuPont). 

As far as my goals are considered (Figure 1), I have incorporated what I’ve learned from this course, as well as my updated skills, into my Capstone project. However, I wouldn’t say I’m 95% finished with it. At the time I wrote these goals, I predicted having already incorporated an LLC. Instead, I secured a job around 6 months ago and haven’t found the time to invest in anything else. 

I learned many valuable tools from the content of this course, including DuPont (as a company), the chemical industry, the proper way to research a company (and its industry), the importance of knowing how a company (and its industry) earns its revenue, the correct way to create a Gap Analysis (using PESTEL and SWOT analyses), the correct way to complete a case study, and other terminology and procedures related to the program. I also learned I need to stop spreading my time so thinly that I can’t even operate outside of work and homework. 

I can easily apply what I’ve learned this past month to my future endeavors because I’ve already created a Gap Analysis for the company that currently employs me. I also plan to (create and) provide similar solutions to other companies once I roll out my LLC in the near future. I believe with the time I spend on school work each week (some weeks up to 40 hours), I will soon have the time to invest in my own company. 

Thank you for your time, 

Joe

Full Sail University’s Business Intelligence Leadership and Communication Skills (BIN650) course was a bit of a slower month, as far as work load is concerned. 

It’s difficult to measure if my original expectations of this course matched or differed from the outcome. Created over one year ago, my original expectations for this course (Figure 1) were focused outside of the course. This may have matched my expectations for the work load, in that I must’ve felt that I would have the extra time this month to focus on other things, as well. Which, I did. Back in June 2016, I expected to learn how to refine my communication skills from this course, which I did. Thankfully, I was also able to learn of ways to improve my leadership skills. I expected that I would have developed an effective introduction and conclusion to my Capstone. Instead, I am still comprising the body of the document. At this time last year, I was unemployed and aiming to invest most of my time into my LLC. Regardless of how you look at it, fortunately or unfortunately, I am now employed and invest as much time, if not more, into it as I do my school work. 

When speaking of exemplary leadership qualities, I will certainly be applying more Grit and Ambition to my professional future. With the addition of these attributes to my soft skills, I feel I can become a better communicator. These qualities will certainly benefit me in times of negotiations, operations, management, and overall performance. 

Thank you for your time, 

Joe

Full Sail University’s Data Visualization and Creative Reporting (BIN630) course was a fun change of pace. Of the homework that was assigned this month, two tasks stuck out in my mind. During week two, we were instructed to tell the story of a movie using a visualization (Figure 1). My selection wasn’t one that I would necessarily call a movie that I particularly enjoyed, just a movie where I visualized how I could create the infographic prior to beginning. During week three, we were instructed to create a dashboard for any super hero of our choice.  

As far as my goals are concerned (Figure 2), I’ve certainly met two of the three goals I previously set for this month. I was definitely able to learn new techniques in the creation of widgets, dashboards, and infographics. I also met the second goal of the month by incorporating my updated skills into my Capstone project. It ended up being the final assignment in the course. That’s a crazy coincidence. I created this goal timeline almost one year ago. 

I think it’s safe to say that I will absolutely use this knowledge and these techniques that I’ve gathered to create more effective and efficient visualizations. Every business needs dashboards and infographics to help visualize where the business has been, where it is currently, and where it’s heading. 

Thank you for your time, 

Joe

(Figure 1. My graphic for telling a story through visualizations.)

Wow! What a month! I believe this class was the most time-consuming course I’ve had thus far. 

Full Sail University’s Process Modeling and Analysis (BIN620) course has exceeded my expectations. I’ve learned around twenty different modeling techniques related to processes and analyses. I have a new respect for the amount of information in the Business Intelligence realm. I feel that I’ve been improving my Microsoft Visio diagram and chart designing skills. Speaking of skills, a recurring assignment during this month’s course was to create (and update) our own business website. I’ve certainly become more handy with the Wix website over the past thirty days. 

Looking back to the goals I originally set for this course last summer (Figure 1), I did not anticipate I would be investing 40+ hours per week into my current job. I was unable to perform a four-month review of my accumulated information, but I was able to find some time to invest into my Capstone project. I was unable to secure one freelance opportunity with my LLC, but I was able to receive a bonus at work by completing some BI analyses in my spare time.  

I think it’s safe to say that I’ll be utilizing the information that I’ve learned this month in regards to models and simulations in the future. I’ve already begun implementing what I’ve learned into the work place and have definitely impressed my supervisor with the amount of business-related knowledge I’ve retained. I believe the future looks bright, both for my career as well as my entrepreneurial endeavors. 

Thank you for your time. 

Full Sail University’s Patterns and Recognition (BIN610) course has met, and exceeded, my class-related expectations found in Figure 1 (below). Among the many valuable terms and tools I acquired this month, I was able to expand my pattern recognition skill set and learn more about Bayes’ Theorem, prior probability, posterior probability, and their relation to conditional probability. I was also able to begin research on my Capstone project and am excited to see how it develops over the next few months.  

I’m happy to have been offered a unique opportunity (in the near future) to create a presentation related to methods my current employer could adopt and implement in order to make the business’ current processes and procedures a more efficient and effective system. I’m also in the process of honing specific skill sets and capabilities in order to become more specialized in certain areas that are in higher demand throughout the broad scope of the business intelligence industry. 

Most information presented this month has immediately benefitted me, while other information will benefit me in my career upon graduation. I am particularly proud of the outcome of my restaurant trends project during this course. I have also located, catalogued, and reviewed many case studies that I plan to incorporate into my Capstone and professional career. 

Thank you for your time,

Joe

Appendix:

Full Sail University’s Data Mining (BIN580) course has met, and exceeded, my class-related expectations. (Figure 1.) Among the many valuable terms and tools I acquired this month, I was able to develop advanced data mining techniques like CRISP-DM and SEMMA. I look forward to refining these techniques as I move forward in the business intelligence industry. I have not, however, met my personal out-of-class expectations this month. Although I have narrowed down the possibilities for my Capstone Project, I have yet to select a thesis, so needless to say, I have not yet begun to apply any techniques. I have spoken with an associate about creating an LLC, but I have not yet begun gathering the necessary forms to incorporate said business. Again, all of my course-related goals were met this month. The goals I did not meet were personal goals that did not negatively impact my learning or course work this month. 

As previously mentioned, I was able to learn about widely accepted data mining procedures like CRISP-DM and SEMMA. I was also able to learn a great deal of knowledge from the text this month, Data Mining: Concepts and Techniques by Jiawei Han, Micheline Kamber, and Jian Pei. Aside from our text, our instructor provided many additional insightful resources. 

Everything presented from this month, that I found to be of use or relevance, will benefit me in my career upon graduation. CRISP-DM and SEMMA are resume-boosting attributes, and quite simply, good things to know in this field. In a field where few concepts, tasks, or procedures seem to be deemed as industry standards, these two processes are close to being adopted across the board. 

Thank you for your time, 

Joe

Appendix:

Full Sail University’s Business Intelligence Analytics (BIN560) course has met, and exceeded, my expectations. (Figure 1.) I was able to organize a handful of “loose” files by applying proper naming conventions and placing the files were they belong. This month was filled with extremely valuable information, so I created a separate “Stats Examples” folder for this course, which has screenshots of every diagram, table, and formula found in this month’s Business Statistics text by Ken Black. I plan to refer to this folder in times of need. Organizing the information in this fashion allows me to retrieve it much faster than fishing it out of the textbook. 

Thankfully, I was able to learn something new every time I logged onto the class website. I was able to retain a vast amount of technical terms, formulas, procedures, charts, graphs, diagrams, rules, and best practices related to business statistics. I enjoy math because (for the most part) there is only one correct answer. It’s either right or it’s wrong, and the process to determine so is usually very fast and efficient. I also like math because there may be more than one correct way of arriving at the solution. This provides a level of flexibility to such a fixed universal language. 

Aside from refining my analytical skill set, our class instructor, Mr. Jessup, applied strict guidelines to our work this month. Examples include having to select a permanent analytical tool (like Tableau), a working company, and a database to be used all month, without deviation. I enjoyed how these specific parameters narrowed our focus on a particular industry and provided our work an underlying theme each week. 

We were to perform academic research, so previously acceptable website citations were no longer suitable. Instead, only student research databases like EBSCOhost and Lexis Nexis were allowed to be used. Mr. Jessup also set a one-page limit to our ongoing list of references used in our work throughout the month. This limitation allowed us to become more selective in the sources we chose to include in our work. Our information now had to be more meaningful and purposeful than ever before. As a result, we developed a way to get more out of less, that is, to extract more information from less sources. Each page of each assignment was suggested to include a visualization of sorts. These visualizations were to be numbered consecutively throughout the month. For example, if the first assignment included three visualizations, then the first visualization included in the second assignment would begin on the number four, where the last assignment left off. There were other implemented policies, as well, and I feel that collectively, these requirements provided a more professional atmosphere to the course. I feel these guidelines should be adopted into the curriculum of each graduate-level course at Full Sail University. 

Through the use of a Google Chrome app called, “Full Page Screen Capture,” I have cataloged each and every link, resource, and activity provided during this month’s course. I plan to revisit this information as I move forward in school, my career, and in life. 

Appendix: 

(Figure 1. My predetermined list of course goals for this month.)  

Thank you for your time, 

Full Sail University’s Business Intelligence Technologies (BIT550) course has met most of my expectations. According to my original timeline goals for this month (Figure 1), I’ve learned about ETL processes over the course of the previous class, so I’m about one month ahead of that goal. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I examined more transactional databases this month, but I have learned more about common business intelligence (BI) tasks during this time. I was also able to research the data warehouse market, and it’s affects on most modernized industries, via LexisNexis and EBSCOhost, on my own time.

This course’s content was rich with links to valuable articles and videos that directly related to BI technologies. I was able to create a document evaluating the positives and negatives of a couple BI vendors (SAS and MicroStrategy) as well as comparing Qlik to Tableau. Next, I created a document focused on the role of business requirements in the selection process for a BI project. I was able to research key features thought to be necessary in making a good BI solution. Researching BI trends was also a part of this assignment. My favorite aspect of this month was creating a 16-page review of Information Builders’ WebFOCUS 8 BI platform. I was able to submerse myself with everything concerning the BI platform and now feel I have an excellent handle on the capabilities of the software, without actually ever using it. Lastly, I created a business case for a BI for a fictitious company of my choice. I felt this was good practice. Through all the included reference materials, assignments, and content, I feel I learned a great deal more about BI during this course.

I feel I can apply absolutely everything I learned this month to the remainder of my time here at Full Sail, as well as in the professional world, post-graduation. I believe that being able to construct a solid business case is a major benefit to my always-evolving BI skill set. I also feel that being able to constructively compare BI vendors, as well as their products and services, could prove to lead to major benefits within the industry.

Appendix: 

(Figure 1. My predetermined goals for this course.)

Thank you for your time, 

This course has met, and exceeded, all expectations of mine. There is simply too much information; one has to have both the patience and a basic understanding of the previous material, in order to be able to make sense of the more complex concepts and procedures presented this month. 

In regards to Figure 1, I was able to meet two out of three objectives. I have not used Tableau software yet, but I’m getting much better at Microsoft Visio. (I’ve included some examples in the Appendix, below.)

I was able to learn a plethora of new information, including, but not limited to: the differences between a relational database system and Kimball’s dimensional modeling database system, Kimball’s BI/DW lifecycle, data governance, data integrity, examples of data warehouse systems, extract/transform/load (ETL) modeling processes, staffing plans, cost analyses, fact tables, dimension tables, and enterprise data management plans.

I can certainly apply what I’ve learned this month to the rest of my tenure in the Business Intelligence program here at Full Sail, as well as my professional career upon graduation. I plan to enter the industry prior to, or upon, graduation, and I also plan to create a business solutions LLC. of my own some day soon. Having said that, I completed all assigned work this month by creating templates for future use.

Thank you for your time, 

Joe

Appendix:

(Figure 1. Mastery Timeline - Enterprise Data Management - Course Goals)

(Figure 2. Relational Database Model - Star Schema)

(Figure 3. Organizational Chart - ETL Design Project)

(Figure 4. 5-year Project Review Timeline - ETL Design Project)

How has the Foundations of Business Intelligence course met your Mastery Journal Timeline monthly expectations and goals for this course?

In accordance with my goals made prior to beginning the Foundations of Business Intelligence course, I’d say I’ve achieved two out of three.

After completing Mr. Sabherwal’s Business Intelligence text, I now have a plethora of content to revisit regularly in order to sharpen my understanding of industry-related terminology, processes, and information. Thankfully, an aspect of our assignments this month related to creating (and updating) a glossary of industry-related terms and practices. This is, and will continue to be, an extremely valuable document to me.

Although I have developed a better skill set in the business process analysis department, I did not meet my second goal of viewing the related content (from Figure 1) on Lynda.com. Fortunately, I have been able to utilize this website in order to learn the essentials of how to operate Microsoft Visio software. I look forward to using this program more frequently in order to become more efficient and creative in my workflow.

My third goal was to follow the movers and shakers in the industry. I’ve been able to connect with a few across my social media accounts on LinkedIn and Twitter. A gentleman by the name of Doug Laney followed me on Twitter the other day. Upon researching his name, I found out that Mr. Laney is a VP at Gartner, a company I’ve become familiar with this past month. I intend to reach out for an interview to align with a goal of mine found in my Mastery Journal Timeline. (Link provided below) 

https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AP1YgDSuNTlkZmQ&cid=C886949D9A14C2AF&id=C886949D9A14C2AF%21120&parId=C886949D9A14C2AF%21106&o=OneUp

What have you learned from the course content?

I’ve learned far more from this course than I could include in such a concise blog entry. I will mention that I now understand many aspects of business intelligence, ranging from terms and concepts to practices and procedures. I look forward to turning more of this information into knowledge as I proceed down this path.

How might you apply what you learned as you proceed through the Business Intelligence program and in your professional career upon graduation?

I found absolutely everything in this course to be valuable and relatable to my desired career path. I will continue to process the information presented this past month and apply it to my work, both in my education and in my career.

Appendix:

(Figure 1. BIN 520 - F.B.I. Goals)

References

Douglas Laney. (n.d.). Personal Profile. LinkedIn. Retrieved August 28, 2016, from https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglaney?authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=V_cL&locale=en_US&srchid=1100021681472407593915&srchindex=1&srchtotal=14&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A1100021681472407593915%2CVSRPtargetId%3A276915%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary%2CVSRPnm%3Atrue%2CauthType%3ANAME_SEARCH

This is my first diagram ever created using Microsoft Visio Pro.