Mastery Journey

The end is finally here, as I complete my last assignment for Business Intelligence Capstone course.  I’m finishing the program, but I am also planning for the next few months to continue my education towards my certifications. As I continue to research positions and job descriptions there are a few skills I need to work on to become competitive in the BI market. A degree can help but at the end of the day, it’s about your experiences and skills that will help you grow as an expert.

In the beginning of this course, my goal was to uncover my strengths and understand the different aspects of the industry. I’ve discovered and learned the different roles and skills needed based on the position I want to pursue. In the course, I’ve learned the process of how to find a business gap analysis and cost analysis and find a BI software to solve their capabilities.

Source: Business Intelligence – SkyVantage Airline Software. (2014). Retrieved August 28, 2016, from http://skyvantage.com/business-intelligence/

My goals at the end of the course were to have a list of activities and tools to focus on so I can continue to enhance my skills. These are some of the certifications I need to work on to add to my resume and help me become a Business Intelligence Consultant

1.  MCSE Business Intelligence

2.  Oracle BI Implementation Specialist

3.  SQL Server 2014 Essential Training – Lynda completed

4.  Business Analysis Fundamentals – Lynda certified

5.  Critical Thinking Skills – Lynda certified

6.  Become a Thought Leader – Lynda certified

I’m am finishing my Business Intelligence Master of Science Program feeling confident and focused on the steps I have to take. This year wasn’t easy! I had many challenges with trying to focus, with personal obstacles regarding stability and financial hard ache but I gave it all. This course not only helped me learn Business Intelligence but it also helped me go the extra mile no matter what life presented. Every journey is a lot like Business Intelligence you must define the problem, generate recommendations, conduct an analysis and find a solution. We can use our experiences from other areas to help us solve future problems.

Source: 31 Motivational Picture Quotes to Get Through Hard Times | Wealthy Gorilla. (2014). Retrieved August 28, 2016, from http://wealthygorilla.com/motivational-picture-quotes-get-through-hard-times/

After going through this program my goals are to take all the knowledge I’ve learned with the Capstone and apply it to my current position as an Analyst and Reporting Manager in Purple Moon Media. I want to help my boss with proposals and help increase revenue. I want to use the skills I’ve learned to improve the way we present our future Digital Marketing plans. I want to identify the organization needs, gather the requirements, manage and verify information to help create solutions for the business requirements.

My plans are to become a thought leader within my organization then expand myself in the community and through my online presence. My goals are to start creating content from the knowledge I’ve learned throughout the program and Lynda.com. I will take the tips from Lynda certification and apply them within in 24hours and create a plan of action.  I will start blogging for Purple Moon Media and continue to post once a month on my Tumblr Blog to educate, entertain and inspire.  This will keep me motivated and always learning in my journey to success. 

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.  John C. Maxwell

According to the book we read this month “The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes he explained leaders invest in creating trustworthy relationships. Leaders build spirited and cohesive teams, teams that feel like family. They actively involve others in planning and give them the discretion to make their own decisions. Leaders make others feel like owners, not like employees or beneath themselves.

This class highlights a leader as a person who develops collaboration between their teammates and colleagues’ they work with. A leader will always bring out the best skills of others and let them know how much they are appreciated. They bring people together and create an atmosphere everyone feels part of and make sure they win.  

Many of us think we are born being a leader or not but it might come easy to few of us but if you are wanting to build character and skills this is one role you can practice and improve each day.  There are a few qualities you can look into and add them to your daily routine to help you focus on one each day and build the skill.

There are many characters and values we can discuss in this article but for now,  I just want to focus on three that can transform our role into leadership.

Be Honest

Always do the right thing and be honest as a leader. This will help others in the organization respect and stand by you no matter what situation present itself.

Be Focus

In these times we are living there are many distractions that surround us. Know where you are going and stand firm towards the goal you want people to follow.  You have to be strong and focus and stay on the course, so your team can feel confident and be clear of the goal or accomplishment.

Build Relationships

Build strong relationships with others within the team. Learn about their inner motivation and struggles throughout projects.  When a leader takes time to learn about their teammate’s struggles and challenges they can help them through by highlighting these strength and weakness to help them get over the hump in life. Leaders build people up to achieve their highest goals.

Data Visualization and Creative Reporting help me put data together and create a design and a story. In this course I was able to present complex results to wide range of audience across an organization or client. This class focused on using dashboards that include web-base and desktop widgets and stand- alone software applications. Data could be boring for any audience but creating a design with colors and meaning can help the decision makers understand what they need to do to decrease expensive or increase marketing ideas.  

Every week the teacher took us step by step on how to create or analyze a visual piece with data. First we had to learn about design and color on infographics. Then we had to watch a movie and collect data from the story and create a couple of designs that included, lines, graph and map pertaining the story line. I had a lot of fun with this assignment because I was able to include my family while I was completing homework. I did not receive the best grade but at the end I understood what needed to be completed to deliver a story.

One of my favorite assignment was the infographic I had to create for one of the discussions during the month. I have a website I’ve been working on that helps families who relocate to Center Florida www.MyOFR.info.  I decided to create an infographic that gives new residents quality facts to get to know the City of Orlando. My plans is to improve the design and use it on a blog for the website. I did enjoyed researching for data and putting it all together.

Another assignment I enjoyed was when we had to create a dashboard for a superhero to help them with a task they needed help with. I chose “Ironman” he is one of my favorite Marvel characters in all the movies. I do like Captain America as well but for this assignment I decided to help Ironman. To prepare for this creation I watched some of the cartoons shows and sitcoms to help me figure out the best data that will suit him.  After analyzing I decided to create a few pivot table to help gather the data I eventually wanted in the dashboard.  This the screen shot you will see I’ve focused on creating a pivots News, Country, City, Criminals and IP Address.

Here are the reasons I choose these  

News – This will help Ironman stay connected with worldwide new around the globe.

Country & City  – The locations the criminal was located.

Criminals –  A list of villains that Ironman had problems with in the past and now currently.

IP Address – A way to track all types of communication and devices that were used.

After I gathered the data I put all the dashboard together.  In this dashboard you can see that I added his colors for branding and that fits the scenario. I’ve added different kinds of visualization like charts, graphs and tables to help relate the data to the superhero in a quick and efficient way. My goals were to help the superhero glance the dashboard and immediately make decisions based on the current situation and contact the Avengers if needed.

These assignments put everything in perspective. They explained how gathering data can be boring and meaningful if you do not used the correct colors, graphs, flowcharts, line into the right visualization. Many companies want to learn about their data but most importantly they want to know what does it mean toward their campaign and revenue growth. When you used a colorful visualization it helps connect the dots together to help the decision maker understand what’s going on and what steps need to be taken.

The Process Modeling and Analysis Course will address how business intelligence systems are used to support the analysis and improvement of business processes. This course was one of my favorite classes. I was able to create a website with all the models I’ve learned throughout the course this month. Learn more about my project and the models I’ve implemented in My Medical Analysis to explain my thoughts and analysis toward my plan to decrease uninsured debt rate in Florida.

The class helped me understand the different process of modeling in action toward a problems or a desire need for a company. Entering my eighth month into the program this class help me understand how to put all the pieces together and support a business development. We were able to explain the process of modeling and simulations (M&S) analyses in a business setting. We had to apply the process of system and cost estimation to forecast to predict modeling outcomes. I had to show the basic concepts tools, and techniques to show how data was used to make decision. I really enjoyed this class and looking forward to practice more of these skills toward my current position as an Analyst & Reporting Manager for Purple Moon Media.

Every time I finish a course I always wish I had more time to dig deeper and improve my skills. There is not enough time to do everything but I engaged in every lesson and was able to use what I learned and apply it on each assignment. For example, in this assignment I could have gave more details and analysis. Having more time to improve this model would have gave me a clear view on what I needed to work on to give more information to this page. I could honestly say that I’ve learned logistic of Business Intelligence through each project and pages I’ve created for the website.

I was not able to complete the reading for the book (Handbook of Real-World Application in Modeling and Simulation) in this course but my goal is to go back and read it completely.  

The strategies and tactics I’ve focused was to go on Lynda.com and watch these tutorials.  

1.     Collecting and processing data

2.      Instructional design essentials: Need Analysis

This month was my seventh month towards my Master in Business Intelligence with “Pattern and Recognition” class. In this course I’ve learned advanced patterns in data-mining concepts and techniques to find meaningful statistical patterns and relationships in data. How to detect certain behaviors in charts and graphs.  I've been exposed to pattern and recognition and the different ways of reading data.

Source:https://assethub.fso.fullsail.edu/assethub/Chart_Patterns_Trader_d353f325-2b93-403f-918b-b1ff030e79a3.pdf

In my current position, I’m the Analytic and Reporting Manager for a Digital Marketing Firm. I’m responsible of all clients accounts and I make sure they are running smooth and normal.  I have to look for unusual dips or peaks in the account and if there is I have to take precautions. The tools I’ve worked with so far to analyze pattern and recognition are Google Analytic and Tableau. I’m usually on Google Analytic on a daily basis to collect data and created monthly reports for our clients. I analyze each accounts based on their traffic and user behavior and communicate with the team if our marketing strategy is not working. This month I’ve learned how to look at graphs and figure out if they are trending positively or negatively based on there behaviors through shape and direction.  I've learned the difference between uptrend and downtrend by looking at the points on a line patterns.  Now,  I can look over the monthly graph with other an analytic view to figure out what is currently happening. There is a lot of information you can get out of Google Analytic when you know how to use it.  My goals are to continue to grow with Google Analytic and learn how to use it with Tableau.  

Source: http://www.marketsmith.com/special/PatternRecognition.htm

This Pattern and Recognition course helped me put everything in perspective with reading graph trends with stocks but also in my current position. My goal in this class was to learn more about machine learning and computer science and signal processing, computer vision, data mining and how to use them all together to make decision based on the results I found. I have found myself using this skills with previous assignments I’ve had in this class, but I’ve also had the opportunity to implement them in real life.   

Everything humans do relates to patterns and special behaviors we do each and everyday. Businesses need to analyze data to find out what has worked in the past and how their audience behavior is evolving. Understanding the trends so businesses can create new marketing materials to help increase branding and revenue and most importantly help their audience with their needs.

Source: Data Mining Projects Archives - IEEE Final year projects cse ece vlsi -Targetj Solutions-9611582234. (n.d.). Retrieved December 20, 2015, from http://finalyear-projects.com/category/data-mining-projects/

This month has been an eye opener about data and how it’s analyzed for companies to use. I’m almost half way into the degree and feel real confident in what I’ve learned so far. In the beginning of the degree I stated that I wanted to learn how discover pattern and relationships in the data. I’ve learned how Data Mining works within Business Intelligence and how it affects decision-makers. Data mining is a process of breaking down data into meaningful and useful information to help the organization.

Here is an example of what is Data Mining, I learned from a GoogleTechTalk about Statistical Aspects of Data Mining (Stats 202) Day 1

In this example above I’ve added two columns Data Mining and Not Data Mining. In the first column it shows how data mining can find useful knowledge about a certain area. For example why does families with the last names O’Brien, O’Rurke and O’Reilly settle in the Boston area? If they are business owners or investors in the area it can help the city find other ways to help them find more of what they are looking for.  With this information you are able to collect the data and analyze how they cluster in a certain region them into something that can be helpful in the long run.  

In the second column “Not Data Mining” the search is broad and not specific enough; looking at the phone numbers in a phone directory is not going to give you more than what’s provided. When data mining is used is when you look at massive data to come up with reasons behind it and answer more specific questions for example why families settle in the Boston and not Georgia.

Where is data mining being used? Data mining is used everywhere grocery stores, banks, credit card companies, retail stores and through websites and social media. Data is collected each day by many different forms to help businesses learn about their customers’ behaviors, buying trends and is used for security reasons.

Source: Matrix Business Systems. (n.d.). Retrieved December 20, 2015, from http://www.matrixbs.biz/SmartView .html

There are two categories in Data Mining predictive and descriptive. Prediction methods use variables to predict unknown or future values of other variables in the other hand the users is trying to predict the future based on the classification in some source. Descriptions methods are patterns that are found in the data and it describe to solve a question or help to realize something new.

Source: Data mining. (n.d.). Retrieved December 20, 2015, from http://betterevaluation.org/evaluation-options/data_mining

Data mining is very interesting and very useful in many aspect for a business, but for customers it has it’s pros and cons. As a customer we have the right to limit our information and opting out in certain opportunities. For example, using your Facebook login information to create a new profile will give the provider permission to your data. As they say nothing is FREE, you always give up something and in this example is your personal information. Take time to notice how businesses are advertising to you; look at ways you are opening your personal data for business use. This would be a cool activity to do.

I know data mining will definitely help me in my present position as an Analyst and Reporting Manager. Understanding ways to use data mining on varies methodologies could help me differentiate ways to make decisions on data retrieved. I’m in the process of learning about Tableau and R software to help me develop the skills I may need to help me in my career. Business Intelligence is interesting but as of now I know it takes skills and understanding how to relate data into tell a story for business to learn.

Month 05: Business Intelligence Analytics

Source: (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2015, from http://theanalystcoach.net/tag/business-analyst-careers/

I just completed Business Intelligence Analytic and it wasn’t an easy class but it forced me to pushed myself out of my comfort zone and concentrate.  Most of our assignments came from the book we read in class Business Statistics: For Contemporary Decision Making, 8th edition. In this class I was able to refresh my skills on statistics and probabilities for  situation to improve organization problems: I also learned how to apply it towards  Business Intelligence with tools and solutions. We went over the statistical concepts like:

Nominal,Ordinal, Interval, Ratio

Frequency Distribution, Range

Histogram, Frequency Polygon, Ogive, Dot Plot, Stem and Leaf Plot

Pie Chart, Bar Graph, Pareto Chart

Cross Tabulation, Scatter Plot

Random Sampling, Stratified, Systematic, Cluster, Nonrandom, Sampling Error

This part was exciting; I was able to use Tableau or Excel to show some of these concepts to explain my BIA problem or projects throughout the course.  We choose a working company to observe the market data and picked one situation we wanted to focus on.  I chose the medical field because eventually I want to consult in this industry.   My goal was to familiarize myself on the different ways of analyzing a hospitals data.  I’ve learned there are many factors in the health field that could use a business analyst, the role will collect data, analyze numbers and most importantly relate it to current problems and forecast new ideas to improve return on investment.

Source: How Business Analyst play an important role in Projects. (2015, August 27). Retrieved November 22, 2015, from http://www.edupristine.com/blog/role-of-business-analyst

In the beginning of this degree I explained and outlined what I wanted to accomplish in this class.

I wrote: “ My goal in this course is to receive a better understanding on how to describe the data and how to apply it to help a client.”  

Business Intelligence Analytic is not an easy class but I was able to manage my time and put in hard work to finally be at the end of this course. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it, but I did. Thanks to my professor James Jessup for taking his time and sitting with me to help me through some confusions and difficulties.

My strategies & tactics in the beginning of the course was to use Lynda.com and watch videos about Business Intelligence and Analytic to help me through this course. With videos our professor provided it was easy to follow and complete assignments with new practices and techniques. This month I was able to really focused on the working company I decided to work on this month. I was able to use my resource and research to find data on Florida Hospital challenges and come up with new ideas to prove how to improve revenue. This class was difficult but meaningful and it definitely put Business Intelligence Analytic in a whole new perspective. At the end of this course I understood how important the skills I'm expected to have to perform in a Business Intelligence role. When it is time to analyze an organization requirement the main problem as a business intelligence analyst is to gather information and be able to package it in such a way, so I can make recommendations and help the company move forward.  It's an important role, but this class gave me a taste of how crucial this role can become in an organization and what skills I need to perfection.

The Business Intelligence Technology course was a pretty intense class.  My professor took me step by step on the logistic of what Business Intelligence entails. We learned the BI system and the design and creation of a data warehouse.  I’m pretty savvy on why Business Intelligence is build and how it will benefits an organization through the different capabilities. The unstructured world is growing and has evolve a huge problem in the market leaving many professionals behind on translating data. After these four weeks, I now can relate my knowledge to any business that wants to implement a BI solution.

We’ve learned several reasons why business intelligence fail in the market and some of the problems many organizations face to reach success.  As the market get saturated with data and information it’s crucial for businesses to adopt BI for clarity on their performance and decision-making. Some of the reasons many users stay away from building a BI are because they do not want to have more responsibilities or lose their current position to technology.  These are fair reasons why to think this way, but when you study the benefits of a BI solution it’s far from all users assumptions.

I’ve learned this month the importance of knowing several tools and solutions out in the market to help me match the right one to an organization needs and interest. Inquiring knowledge of the vendors in the market has help me gain confident to talk and understand what BI will do to a companies end-goal. I’ve started to search for an internship in Central Florida to enhance my education on to hand on experience.

Goal: My goal is to receive familiarities with the programs and tools I need to start to master the task.

Strategies & Tactics: Lynda.com- Exploring databases and database management system

The month has ended and I’m finally finished with my third month Enterprise Data Management.  My goal in the beginning of the course was to familiarize myself with programs and tools I need to know about, as I complete this course I can say I have accomplished this milestone.  Each week discussion Professor Horn-Yeu Shiaw had us research different vendors, learn the prices of a few of them and compare them to each other.  I enjoyed each week discussion, it made me get out of my comfort zone and search for vendors I never knew existed and that will support our Data Warehouse. 

 Each week assignments we were able to implement what we learn from the week and show how it will help the company we’ve chosen for our final capstone. Some of the information I learned in Enterprise Data Management was Business Requirements and Data Realities. This was an eye opener because this is the beginning of it all. You must sit down with the organization and conduct a detailed interview.  This will set myself up for success as an analysis. Collecting the right information will help me focus on the right issues and problems the organizations are experiencing.  Once this has been established, I can move forward to step two Dimensional Design Process. This gave me an opportunity to dig deep into the industry and come up with the four key decisions to create a dimensional model for Pottery Barn. 

 1. Select the business process

2. Declare the grain

3.  Identify the dimensions

4.  Identify the facts

 This part of the course was interesting and I did enjoy it. I chose to do my capstone on Pottery Barn a retail store, so the time I was at work I would think about how Business Intelligence help this organization.  When we had to work on creating a Fact Table and come up with dimensions to support the table it made me feel like an analysis.  We learned about business processes and the steps a business have to grow through to accomplish a sale or transaction to increase revenue.  This gave me a wide understanding on how business intelligence plays a huge part in retail stores when improving their system.

 We had to focus on fact measurements and come up with an issue that a fact table will support decision makers to understand what the data is reflecting on. Declaring the grain helped me understand how it will support my creation of dimension I want to focus on.  This month I've learned a couple of star schemas and OLAP Cubes and how they are important in the BI process and their responsibilities. All the hands on projects, tutorials and articles I’ve read has made me comfortable to talk about how BI process will work in an organization

Month 01: Mastery: Personal Development and Leadership 

                                               Goal 

My goals and aspirations is to succeed in my career will keep me well grounded and focused. 

                                        Strategies & Tactics

Book -Web Analytics An HOUR A Day by Avinash Kaushik

Month 02: Foundations of Business Intelligence 

                                               Goal

My goal in this class is to learn focus on topics, tools and training I may need pertaining my skills

                                        Strategies & Tactics 

  Lynda.com - Microsoft Business Intelligence Stack Fundamentals

Month 03: Enterprise Data Management

                                                Goal 

My goal is to receive familiarities with the programs and tools I need to start to master the task.  

                                       Strategies & Tactics

Lynda.com- Exploring databases and database management system

 Month 04: Business Intelligence Technologies 

                                                Goal 

My goals are to learn where to find the data, learn the benefits of the tools and how to apply the information to help the business

                                      Strategies & Tactics

Blogs - Business Intelligence and Data Analytics Blog -http://paristech.com/blog/

 Month 05: Business Intelligence Analytic

                                               Goal 

My goal in this course is to receive a better understanding on how to describe the data and how to apply it to help a client

                                    Strategies & Tactics

Lynda.com - Learn Business Intelligence and Analytics

Month 06: Data Mining

                                               Goal

My goal is to fully receive familiar with the different types of data, importing data and reporting data and ways to figure what to do with it.

                                       Strategies & Tactics

Youtube - Data mining tutorial for beginners FREE Training 01

Month 07:Patterns and Recognition

                                               Goal

My goals in this course is to learn more about machine learning, computer science and signal processing, computer vision, data mining and how to use them all together to make wise decision base on the result I found.

                                  Strategies & Tactics

Lynda.com - Pattern recognition

 Month 08: Process Modeling and Analysis

                                                  Goal

I hope to understand Business Intelligence a lot more in-depth, and feel confident to market myself in the field

                                         Strategies & Tactics

Book - The Art of Business Process Modeling: The Business Analyst's Guide to Process Modeling with UML & BPMN Paperback – January 22, 2010

Month 09: Data Visualization and Creative Reporting

                                               Goal 

My goal is to learn how to build visualization and use tools to organize my data and findings

                                         Strategies & Tactics

Lynda.com- Categorizing results in a visual report

Month 10: Business Intelligence Leadership & Communication Skills

                                                Goal

My goal is to use some of Robert Greene key of mastery and help develop my leadership and communication skills. My goal is to practice to put others before me and submit to others in my field.

                                          Strategies & Tactics

Book- Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ Paperback – September 27, 2005

Month 11:Business Intelligence Case Studies

                                                  Goal

My goal for this month is to embrace every case study and use my strength to come up with great results and creative presentation

                                      Strategies & Tactics

Widen your vision and look for solutions in a different perspective- Robert Greene -Mastery

Month 12: Business Intelligence Capstone

                                                Goal 

I hope to have uncover my strengths to my full potential and understand all aspect of my field. My goal is to have a list of activities and tools to focus on and continue to enhance my given gifts. Being fully prepared will increase my confidence level to take the field and practice my skills. My main goal is to support my family and never have to work again as I work toward my life destiny.

                                      Strategies & Tactics

I love learning from others especially in my field. Here are a few places I like to receive more insight about my industry. 

Working on my Master on Business Intelligence these resource will prepare me on what’s coming and what’s working. 

http://feedly.com/i/category/Web%20Analytics

Great resources to learn from about Web analytic and trends.