Module 1: The Microsoft Business Intelligence Stack
Lessons
- What Business Intelligence can do for your organization
- What to watch out for in implementation
- The Scope and what types of tools address each?
Lab : The Microsoft Business Intelligence Stack
- Examine and run a prebuilt SQL Integration Services Package that performs an Extract Transform and Load into a Data mart.
Module 2: Getting Started with MDX. We walk then run. Learn this and you won’t trip.
Lessons
- MultiDimensional VS Tabular Space
- Data Warehouse Data Mart
- MDX Introduction
- The Editors
Lab : Getting Started with MDX. We walk then run. Learn this and you won’t trip.
- Familiarization with the SQL Server Management Studio Query Editor
- Familiarization with the Business Intelligence Development Studio Query Editor
- SQL Profiler
- Basic MDX
Module 3: The all-important Dimensions. The bearers of truth.
Lessons
- Dimensions
- Dimension Attributes
- Hierarchies
- Referencing Members
- Tuples
- Cells
- Sets
- Set Functions
Lab : The all-important Dimensions. The bearers of truth.
- Dimension Properties
- Dimension Attributes
- Single Dimension Hierarchies
- Multidimensional Hierarchies
- The All Member
- The Members function
- Referencing Members
- Syntax errors
- Partial Tuple references
- Multiple Axis
- Crossjoin
- Auto-Exists
- Exists
- Removing Duplicate Tuples
Module 4: Navigation and the secrets of relatives!
Lessons
- Navigation in reporting
- Relatives
- Navigational Functions
- Controlling Sorting
- Filtering the results
- How to combine a set
Lab : Navigation and the secrets of relatives!
- Navigating a Hierarchy
- Locating Immediate relatives
- Using the members function effectively
- Hierarchize Function
Module 5: MDX Calculations.
Lessons
- Expressions
- Calculated members
- Formatting output through the With clause
- Dynamic Expressions
- IIF function
- Statistical Functions
- Determining which tuples satisfy a parameter in a report
Lab : MDX Calculations.
- Explore variations of the With Clause
- Create Members
- Calculate Percentages
- Advanced Formatting
Module 6: Working with Time. Multiple calendars, divergent horizons.
Lessons
- Time Dimension
- Multiple calendars
- Time based Functions
- ParallelPeriod
- OpeningPeriod
- ClosingPeriod
- LastPeriod
- Year-To-Date
- Calculated Measures and a time Dimension
- Comparing Periods
- Sum Function
- Aggregate Function
- Max and Min Function in Time
Lab : Working with Time. Multiple calendars, divergent horizons.
- ParallelPeriod
- OpeningPeriod
- ClosingPeriod
- LastPeriod
- Year-To-Date
- Calculated Measures and a time Dimension
- Comparing Periods
- Sum Function
- Aggregate Function
- Max
- Min
- Use Crossjoin and ParallelPeriod
Module 7: Business Insights. Now let’s put it to work and get some situational answers.
Lessons
- Or logic
- And Logic
- Combining Or and And logic from different hierarchies
- Logical And with members from the Same
- Using the NonEmpty function
- Moving Averages
- Last date with data
- ParallelPeriod for Multiple Dates
- Testing current context
- Options of the Descendants function
- Ranking Values
Lab : Business Insights. Now let’s put it to work and get some situational answers.
Module 8: Where else will MDX work? SQL Reports
Lessons
- Create a SSRS report
- Create a connection into the cube
- Create a MDX query with the query designer
- Create a custom query
- Pass a parameter
- PerformancePoint Services Dashboard Designer (Not installed PowerPoint and Video demonstration)
Lab : Where else will MDX work? SQL Reports
- Create a SSRS report
- Create a connection into the cube
- Create a MDX query with the query designer
- Create a custom query
- Pass a parameter
Module 9: KPIs and MDX in the Business Intelligence Development Studio Editor
Lessons
- Use Business Intelligence Development Studio to create a named calculation in the cube
- Use Business Intelligence Development Studio to create KPIs
Lab : PerformancePoint Services
- Create a named calculation
- Create a Leaf KPI
- Create an Objective KPI
- Utilize IIF logic in a KPI
This instructor-led course is designed to take a person from the very beginning of MDX queries to journeyman. The first chapters (1-4) get you well-grounded, then from there we expand out. You won’t know how to do every MDX query. You won’t look at every function. But you will understand the patterns, and from them you can examine examples and build on them to code your own sophisticated queries.
Queries such as:
What are the top 5 customers by country over the last 8 quarters?
What is our reorder point based on inventory levels?
What are our best customers in terms of volume and gross profit?
What effect does shipping cost have on profitability on a geographical distribution?
How do we calculate the Year to Date value?
How do we do Year-over-Year growth?
When looking at manufacturing how do we account only for workdays?
If the past is any indicator of the future then this course will be attended mainly by SQL Professionals, Microsoft Analysis Service cube and report developers and Business Intelligence Professionals coming from competing platforms. But you do not need those skills. The course was not written assuming those skills.