Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

  • Redgate at SQLBits

    SQLBits LogoRedgate and the Advocates are attending SQL Bits next week in London. I’m excited to see Grant and Kathi in person, as it’s been far too long since I have been in the same room with them.

    You can register today and attend any of these sessions in person.

    If you feel comfortable in crowds and miss getting together in person, come to SQL Bits next week and say hi.

  • Traveling to SQL Bits

    I’m heading to SQL Bits this weekend, and will be in London most of next week for the conference. I’m excited. SQL Bits is my favorite conference, as I’ve noted before. I’ve missed the event too often, usually because of schedule conflicts, and I’m thrilled to be heading back to both London and the event.

    I’ll be delivering a pre-con on Wednesday, with Grant and Kathi, and have a couple sessions. Thursday. The schedule is packed with some amazing speakers. Some will be virtual, but lots of us will be live, in-person.

    If you are near London, and feel safe, consider registering and coming out. Lots of precautions are in place, and I think they have done a good job of preparing for a large conference.

    With the pandemic, travel has been restricted and plenty of people have been cautious. Across two years, I’ve felt a range of emotions, but I feel confident in my safety, and that of others, at this time.

    This should be a fantastic time, and I look forward to seeing friends and meeting new people next week.

  • Data Analysis Techniques

    This is part of a series on my preparation for the DP-900 exam. This is the Microsoft Azure Data Fundamentals, part of a number of certification paths. You can read various posts I’ve created as part of this learning experience.

    I didn’t think much of this bullet on the DP-900 skills document: describe analytics techniques.

    Learn these concepts. They are definitely part of the knowledge needed. This is a part of some MS Learn courses, like this one.

    Descriptive Analytics

    Descriptive analytics have to do with describing what the data shows. In a report or visualization, we are reporting data to the user. An example of this is showing the top 10 products according to sales.

    These are explanatory analytics and think about that in the test. Are we explaining something.

    Diagnostic Analytics

    A diagnosis is an explanation of why something happened. Diagnostic analytics help explain the reason that something occurred. We might look at the top 10 sales against advertising for products and determine that more advertising shows higher sales.

    In the link above from MS Learn, what we typically do here is identify some anomaly or thing we want to explain, get data related to this, and then use some statistics to find a relationship.

    Predictive Analytics

    As you might guess, this type of analytics relate to the future. We are looking to predict what will happen. An example might be forecasting future demand for services.

    When you see a request to predict, forecast or extrapolate, think predictive analytics.

    Prescriptive Analytics

    This type of analysis was a little harder for me to understand or grasp. I get the general idea, but in prep I missed this one a few times. Prescriptive analytics are developing a prescription for how to change something.

    An example might be if I want to find where to cut costs to impact profit, I am looking for a set of things to change. I need a prescription on what will help me achieve my goal.

    In relation to the exam, this has to do with aiming for a goal (10% more or 12 less) and how to reach that goal. If you see specific numbers, usually that relates to a goal and prescriptive analytics.

    Cognitive Analytics

    This type of analysis has to do with thinking. In data analysis and computing, usually I think ML, AI, or some other type of data mining. This can be deriving conclusions or inferences from data, but the blend between this and the descriptive/diagnostic stuff becomes blurry.

    If you need to do speech to text or video transcription or image recognition, think cognitive.

    Summary

    This is how I viewed this techniques on the exam when answering questions:

    • Descriptive
      – What

    • Diagnostic
      – Why

    • Predictive
      – What will happen

    • Prescriptive
      – What do I do

    • Cognitive – Learning about data in new ways

  • Daily Coping 2 Mar 2022

    I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

    Today’s tip is to give sincere complements to people you talk to today.

    This was easy for me, mostly because I try to find positives in life. Just a few days ago I was at a larger volleyball tournament, and I went to see some kids that I have coached in the past. I got the chance to talk to some of them afterwards, and I complemented them on things that they did well, reminding them to be proud of the good things.

    They had plenty of negatives to say about themselves, and I don’t coach kids who are on other teams, so I only had complements.

    It was good to see the parents as well, and I thanked them for continuing to support their kids in volleyball, even though they aren’t on my team.