I had a great opportunity recently to write a series of articles for TechNet Magazine with fellow MSFT BI gurus Stacia Misner and Scot Reagin. The first two articles can be found in the upcoming Auguest issue of TechNet Magazine (the online versions of the articles can be found using the link above as well). Stacia writes a great introductory article on explaining what BI is and then the common solutions/technologies we employ in modern-day times to build such solutions.

In the second article I present a very simple yet concise set of dimensional modeling, data mapping, and SSIS packages that support the ETL requirements of the sample solution.

One key, recuring theme I have learned is that writing introductory content is actually harder than writing advanced content in some ways atleast.

Hope you find the articles useful, especially for those who are new to MSFT BI.

Derek