This post isn’t really about that, though. I have a process that I use to learn the material. I then use the exams to measure that learning. The process I have has worked pretty well. Actually, I am 6 for 6 when I commit to this process. Since it seems to work really well for me, I thought I would share it in case it may help someone else as well.

Typically, I like to use the Microsoft Press Self-Paced exam guides. I find them to be a great starting point and cover the key areas of the technology in question. In the case of exam 70-452, as of the time of this writing, there is not a Microsoft Press exam guide for that exam. Therefore, I instead chose Delivering Business Intelligence with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 by Brian Larson. I found it to be a great base for my prep for 70-452. In areas where I felt I needed to go deeper, I turned to Books Online.

My process consists of a few key steps.

1. I go through the text taking notes on the details of each topic. I make sure to make my notes in my own words and avoid taking anything word for word from the text. This helps a lot in that I must process the information more than once as I go.

2. The books I have used have all featured do-it-yourself style exercises during which you put what you learned into practice. I find this really valuable to gain at least some experience, particularly with skills I have never used in real life.

3. I read through the notes several times over, just like studying for test back in school.

It does not seem like much and certainly is not very elaborate. There are no tesla coils involved or anything. But sometimes it is the simple things people overlook.

Since I titled this post “Facing The Challenge,” I figured I should also show some of the faces I used during the process outline above.

 Confusion. Some of the content was confusing at first.

 Determination. I knew I had to commit myself to understanding all the concepts.

 Realization. Ah. NOW I get it.

 Blue Steel.

 Satisfaction. I passed. I dun learned something.

Well, there you have it.

Behold!

10. Guidebook App

Mobile phone users (aka anyone with a pulse) were able to use an app called a Guidebook to track the schedule, speakers, exhibitors, etc. This meant that I was able to easily build my own schedule of the sessions I wanted to attend as well as fill out my evaluations online. There were configurable reminders to make sure I didn’t forget something I had put on my schedule. It was also easy to keep track of any updates to the schedule during the event. Especially for a noob like me, this app was awesome.

9. SQLKaraoke

SQLKaraoke is just fun. When you’re not singing, you get to hang out with really cool people. I have a background in Theater and Improvised Comedy, so SQLKaraoke is a total blast for me. Since I’m well…a little different, I actually use SQLKaraoke as a networking tool. I like to make up SQL-related spoofs and even do an impression or two. This time around, I ended up performing The Bangles Eternal Flame as Gilbert Gottfried. Yeah. It was pretty silly. But it ended up being a huge boon in terms of networking. People who I have long followed and respect were introducing themselves to me instead of the other way around. I was “the karaoke guy.” Bottom line: be creative in your networking. Creative use of your strengths can pay off really well for meeting new people.

8. Women In Technology Luncheon – Make Yourself Heard

This was totally a great way to meet girls. <pause>

Seriously though, this is an event really designed to help women continue to gain more traction in the workplace. Things are certainly a lot better than they used to be (my wife just started watching Mad Men), but I think we can all agree that true equality isn’t there yet. I was excited to see there were a LOT of men in there (and not just to meet girls). The wisdom shared by the panel is applicable to everyone. It was just a great experience.

7. Exhibitor Hall

I’m a nerd. I like hardware and software. I like stuff. There was all of that in here. You know the old saying, “run around like a kid in a candy store?” Well, this was more like a mall full of candy stores. Mmmmmmmm.

6. Peoples

A huge part of the Summit is networking. Meeting other people. I met so many awesome SQL professionals from around the world. It was just unreal how friendly people were. First Timers, like myself, were made to feel so welcome. I spent meals, walks (there was a LOT of walking), evenings, some events, just meeting and chatting with great folks. There were too many fantastic people to list.

5. “Preventing the Oh, Poop! Reporting Situation.”

SQL Server MVP Jessica Moss (Blog | Twitter) delivered this session. She demonstrated the out-of-the-box methods that Reporting Services provides for tracking the performance of your reports. This included how to determine that a report returned no rows (CEO’s LOVE that, right?). She also demonstrated a cool meta-report solution (reports about reports) you can use to keep an eye on things. It was cool to see a presentation about Report management to complement the ones about building them.

4. A Little Help From My Friends

My friend, Jes Schultz Borland (Blog | Twitter), gave a session called “Reporting Services 201: From Basic To WOW!” She gave some great tips on report authoring and really explained the Tablix well for anyone that was new to it. She discussed features such as the Tooltip and the NoRows message. These are things that are easily overlooked but can really enhance the user experience when implemented well. Squeeeeee! (translation of “Squee”: Hi, my name is Jes and I presented at the Summit!)

My friend, Doug Lane (Blog | Twitter), gave a session called “Developers Are From Mars, Report Servers Are From Venus.” Mr. Lane gave some valuable tips and tricks on Reporting Services through the lens of a marriage. He included the “mother-in-law always comes along” feature of the extra pages you sometimes get in SSRS and how you can often solve that with the ConsumeContainerWhiteSpace property.

NOTE: This image has nothing to do with this post. But, it’s cool so I put it in anyway.

3. Dr. David DeWitt: “Big Data – What is the Big Deal?”

On Friday, Dr. DeWitt gave his keynote, this time on Big Data. As stated earlier, my background is in Theater and Improvised Comedy. I cannot remember any of my acting classes in involving huge quantities of data. And, never having dealt with VLDBs at all in my career, the concepts related to Big Data were pretty new to me. But here is the thing: I understood this keynote. That surprised me. I expected to get lost pretty quickly. Rather, I was able to follow along due to the excellent way in which Dr. DeWitt explained it. This was not merely a presentation on Big Data, it was also a master class in how to be a great presenter.

2. BISM (BI Semantic Model)

I have done a lot of work with Report Models and enjoy dealing with tools that can enable end users. I am excited to deal with BISM and help people get their own data. Why give people a fish when you can plant a potato? Wait… Yeah. You certainly don’t plant the fish…

1. Power View (Project Crescent)

Along the lines of letting users get their own data is the fabulous Power View (formerly known as Crescent). This thing is friggin cool. That’s totally industry speak, by the way. The idea of Two Clicks To ROI is just a great way to make things easy. Essentially, no feature in Power View is more than two clicks away. It is just so easy to use and gorgeous to behold. I can’t wait to really get in and play with this fabulous tool. Keep in mind that it complements the existing tools; it does not replace any of them.

The PASS Summit was an amazing experience. If you ever get the chance to go, grab onto it with both hands.

I just returned from the PASS Summit in Seattle (my customary Top Ten List post is in the works). While there, I had the great pleasure to have lunch with MVP Stacia Misner (Blog | Twitter) and Erika Bakse (Blog | Twitter) at the Birds of a Feather lunch, an event designed to bring folks with similar SQL Server interests together for food, folks, and fun. We discussed how the #sqlhelp requests related to Reporting Services get lost in the volume of the more DBA related topics.

Well, let’s make this better. Let’s all start using the #SSRSHelp hashtag to mark requests for help on Reporting Services related topics. This will make it easier those of us seeking ways to help the community find people to help. It will also make it a much better experience for those seeking help.

We have several bastions of SSRS awesomeness on board who have already started monitoring #SSRSHelp:

MVP Stacia Misner (Blog | Twitter)
MVP Jessica Moss (Blog | Twitter)
Erika Bakse (Blog | Twitter)
Jes Schultz Borland (Blog | Twitter)
Doug Lane (who perhaps had the idea in the first place) (Blog | Twitter)
Angel Abundez (Blog | Twitter)
Chris Randall (Blog | Twitter)
Mark Vaillancourt (my very own self, whose blog you now read with rapt joy | Twitter)

Please feel free to join in and help spread the word. Also, even if you think you will not be able to help, I encourage you to follow anyway and learn from the questions and answers that will flow through the stream. I learn a lot myself that way.

Please keep in mind that the guidelines for #SSRSHelp usage should match that of #SQLHelp. Most important: it is for asking and answering questions about SQL Server Reporting Services. It is not for trying to sell products or trying to funnel folks to your blog or for trying to get others to pool their money with you in the hopes of helping that Nigerian prince who emailed you the other day.

Before I wrap up, I would like to give a quick preview of my PASS Summit Top Ten List:

OMG IT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!

Thanks.

This just in: Our first #SSRSHelp win is in the books.

Thanks to Superior Consulting for sponsoring this month’s meeting.

Please click here for meeting details and to RSVP

Ask the Experts

After the popularity of the past "Ask the Experts" discussions, we decided to bring back the forum for a third straight year. PASS members will have the opportunity to pose any burning questions they might have about SQL Server to our expert panel. We will round things out with a couple tips or tricks about SQL Server from each of our panel experts.  This year’s discussion will be moderated by Jason Strate.

The Panel:

• Lara Rubbelke, Microsoft
• Dan English, Superior Consulting Services
• Mark Vaillancourt, Digineer
• Bill Preachuk, Emergent Networks
• Zach Mattson, Patterson Companies

Removing the cooling fans from servers to cook bacon: bad idea.

10. A 3-pack of Hanes white cotton T-shirts + a black Sharpie = SWAG. On a whim, after the speaker dinner on Friday night, I decided I needed swag to give away during my session. One trip to Walmart and a few moments of sketching later, I had 3 genuine, hand crafted, MarkVSQL shirts. One recipient called my shirts the “greatest swag ever.” #awesomeshirt

9. Doug Lane (blog | Twitter) built a really cool solution using SSIS to achieve Data Driven Subscription functionality without the need for Enterprise Edition. I love really creative uses for SSIS and cannot wait to play with this. On top of that, I was meeting Doug in person for the first time. He’s a really cool guy. If you get a chance to hang with him or mow his lawn or something, go for it.

8. This one I had already seen when I attended last year’s SQL Saturday Chicago: The SQL community in and around the Windy City is vibrant and fun. The attendees for my session were great and I had such an awesome time presenting.

Not everyone had the great experience I did, though. A tiny number of people (1 that I know of) need to keep in mind that people who give of their time to present at these events, and in many cases travel across the country at their own expense to do it, deserve to be treated with some appreciation and respect.

7. Part of the experience is getting to hang out with cool, smart people. I learned a lot outside of sessions just chatting with other folks at the speaker dinner and after party.

6. Hope Foley (Twitter) showed some cool features of PowerPivot, including some mad compression. Nicely done.

5. Norman Kelm (website| Twitter) demonstrated how to have SSIS logging take place within the Script Task. He also showed some Script Task debugging techniques. Pretty cool stuff to be sure.

4. The hot dogs at Portillo’s are frickin spectacular.

3. Jason Strate (blog | Twitter) likes to say: “I’m not a good driver; I’m a successful driver.” Well, he is that. Chris Fish (Twitter) and I rode with Jason down to Chicago from the Twin Cities. And I have to say, we didn’t die even once.

2. I sing about as well as a dead cow under a truck (which is pretty bad, in case you are not aware). I knew that one a long time ago. What I learned this time around is that I can pull off a pretty good rendition of The Lion King’s Hakuna Matata, with Timone and Pumbaa character voices throughout, all by myself. Seriously, #sqlkaraoke is more fun than should be allowed. And singing ability is irrelevant. Just ask Jason Strate. Wait. I should delete that.

1. Getting involved in the SQL Community is awesome. I highly recommend picking a topic you know and want to learn more about and submit a session at your local user group, a SQL Saturday, or even just present to a group of co-workers. You can learn so much by presenting and sharing your expertise with others. If you would rather not present, then please feel free to volunteer or help out however you can. The SQL Community is all of us.

Thanks again to Jason for the great opportunity.

- Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your friends have been misinformed. Please see below this song titled O Release Night, which is a SQL-themed version of the popular O Holy Night. Please feel free to show this to your friends. And, if they choose to start subscribing to my RSS feed, that would be fine, too. I hope you enjoy it and may you and yours stay safe and well this holiday season.

O release night, the maintenance window’s open.
It is the time to run my deployment scripts.
There’s DDL, and DML and stored procs
And functions and triggers, well, I hope not.
I load the file and connect to the DB.
With joyful hope, I hit the F5 key.

Fall on my knees to see the Messages pane!
An error in red, O M G, W T F!
Last night, I tested, twelve frickin times!

I go to the line referenced in the exception
And see where the Engine thinks I went wrong.
Led by the guidance of the crimson text
I find a difference between Test and Prod.
While deep in thought, I glance down at the systray
And see the date’s not what I thought it was.

I now need to stop and rollback all my changes.
Success! Success! I’ve undone all that I did.
I’m off to bed. This is not my release night!