MS BI Architect Training Curriculum

Perception of the term Architect is quite different among technical professionals at different levels. Generally speaking, everyone who knows SSIS, SSAS and SSRS starts considering oneself as an architect. Now when training comes on the page, this becomes a very debatable topic, and when you consult someone on what should be the kind of training curriculum, I have seen people relying on trainers or marketing folks from training institutes who recommend some curriculum for an architect level training.

Below is a list of a few higher level points, that I feel should be included for an architect level training. It's not an exhaustive list, but at least it would provide a flavor of the kind of training, one should aim to grow as an architect. Again a word of caution, these are my views, and I am sure that there would be folks on either side supporting me and against me.

1) IaaS, PaaS, SaaS BI solution development methodology using MS BI Stack

2) Integrating ETL framework (i.e. SSIS) with industry standard relational databases DB2, Ingres, Oracle etc and non-relational data sources like SAP, Microsoft Dynamics

3) Introduction to competitive BI ecosystems available from other competitive vendors (Informatica, AbInitio, Business Objects, etc..)

4) Hands-on-labs on Fast Track Data Warehouse architecture for agile DW development using hub-and-spoke methodology

5) Introduction to appliance solutions like Parallel Data Warehouse and Windows Azure Appliance Solution.

6) Complex Event Processing (CEP) techniques using StreamInsight for real time business performance measurement

7) Economic BI solution development, for example, Dashboards development using Reporting services for enterprises that can't afford PPS.

8) Database and Dimensional modeling, BUS matrix development, Expert tips on Cube design methodology

9) Dashboard development using Sharepoint 2010 Business Intelligence capabilities (Performancepoint Services, Excel Services and Visio Services) and developing integration layer between SQL Server and Sharepoint BI solution.

10) Modeling business processes in Visio, to develop Visio Services enabled strategy maps for consumption in dashboarding.

11) Optimizing cube processing and MDX performance.

12) Detailed discussion on hardware setup and configuration recommended for massively large data warehouses.

13) MS BI Solution deployment on clusters and web farms.

Please feel free to share your views by sending me an email or commenting on this post.