Teaching data warehousing

One of my first tasks on joining Rittman Mead Consulting was to develop a new three-day course on data warehouse design.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to 'road test' some of the course content in a different presentation format; a tutorial-style workshop. Although I had a plan of the topics to be covered over the three days and the slides to back that up, I left it to the attendees to dictate the pace and emphasis, for example we spent a long time discussing how to model a particularly complex part of their business, and an equally long time on how to identify some of their dimensions. We even moved away from the planned agenda a couple of times entirely, for example when I demonstrated Oracle Warehouse Builder (a product they had only read about) and when I gave an outline of how to gather requirements for a DW/BI project.

For this customer this form of delivery had a great advantage, it put the course into the context of their business. They covered the topics they needed and were given the right tools to allow them to start to tackle their BI reporting project.

If this style of course presentation appeals to your organization then drop me a line.