on target
Practical Business Intelligence and Decision Support
A Reusable Range Implementation
Ranges are whatever lies between two values (lower and upper bound). Ranges are very common in all application maybe with different names like intervals (numbers), or periods (dates). Since all ranges need similar operations, why reinvent the wheel? Here are some generic concepts and a practical Java implementation.[Read More]
Posted at 11:51PM Jul 14, 2010 by admin in IT |
6 Hot Hints for Business Intelligence Consultants
Are you an IT or development specialist? Then you shall seriously consider Business Intelligence (BI) as your primary focus. It is an opportunity to greatly improve your income and your professional position.[Read More]
Posted at 04:25PM Jun 21, 2010 by admin in IT | Comments[2]
How to avoid Information Silo
Information silo is one of the most common and expensive pest living in IT departments and consuming its resources. Here is how it grows and how to fight it.
Posted at 10:07PM Jun 02, 2010 by admin in IT |
Databases: relational vs object vs graph vs document
Is relational database dying? Why a model affirmed and finally consolidated over years is now object of discussion? Which alternatives exist and how they can help you in practical situations?
Follow me, in this post, to understand how databases evolved and how to choose between new technological alternatives that have already produced valuable results.
[Read More]Posted at 10:45PM May 13, 2010 by admin in IT | Comments[31]
MapReduce vs Data Warehouse
Did you recently hear about MapReduce? Do you know what it is? If you work in business intelligence this technology will play a key role in your field during next years. Let me show how it can help you right now.
Posted at 10:51PM Apr 29, 2010 by admin in IT | Comments[1]
6 poor ways to design requirements
Writing no application requirement is a bad practice, but the common approaches are costly and far from perfect. Discover why and find a simple, better alternative.
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Posted at 03:39PM Apr 06, 2010 by admin in IT | Comments[2]
Web Analytics: Grain Matters!
It is funny to discover that some web analytic applications, despite their name, are not "analytic enough".[Read More]
Posted at 12:00AM Mar 30, 2010 by admin in IT |
User Analytics: How to visualize information
In previous posts you have seen how to collect User Analytics. In this post you will see how to analyze it through OLAP by mean of simple but illustrative Inquiry. You will see how to generate a relational Data Warehouse to capture User Analytics data and how to create inquiries that satisfy your needs.
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Posted at 12:00AM Jan 28, 2010 by admin in IT | Comments[1]
User Analytics: How to Collect Data
User analytics can be used to know how your users employ your application: what they usually do, how much data they manage, how they perform different tasks, the difficulties they face ...
In previous posts we have seen the importance of user (usage) analytics and a flexible data model to support your information needs. In this post I will show you how to capture the usage data you need.
[Read More]Posted at 12:00AM Jan 19, 2010 by admin in IT |
User Analytics: the Information Model
In previous post I explained the importance of User Analytics and I promised a flexible model to measure application usage. This post is about such model and how to implement it.
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Posted at 12:00AM Jan 12, 2010 by admin in IT | Comments[1]
User Analytics: Why you need them
No, I am not talking about Web Analytics (used to optimized web pages). If software is your business, User Analytics are as important as Web Analytics and, implementing them before competition can give you a differential advantage.
User Analytics (UA) refers to the skills, technologies, applications and practices for continuous iterative exploration and investigation of software application usage.
Here are some typical answers you would expect from UA:
Who are the users of my application? What are their profiles?
How often they use my application?
How much data / information they manage through my application?
Which are the most usual tasks?
Which are the most common error?
Which is the actual learning curve, which are main obstacles?
How long does it take to become proficient with my application?
Which users are defeating? Why?
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Posted at 12:00AM Jan 05, 2010 by admin in IT |
KPIs for IT: a book you can't miss
Here is an excellent, short and very practical book that will help any IT manager or (IT department manager) to setup a metrics program with the measures that really count.
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Posted at 12:00AM Oct 28, 2009 by admin in IT |
Who is the villain? Measure how much users are responsible for the overrun
Missed deadlines and project overrun are constant cause of attrition between IT and users. A simple technique to measure how much is imputable to your users will produce results that will surprise them.
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Posted at 12:40AM Jan 22, 2009 by admin in IT | Comments[1]
How to measure applications
You can't manage what you don't measure! Measuring software is a must in order to manage projects or evaluate different technologies. This is an overview of two widely used metrics, their goals and differences.[Read More]
Posted at 03:30PM Jan 14, 2009 by admin in IT |
