New to Cognos

[nadhiesh]

Hi Guys,

I am really new to cognos. to start with, i have never used it before, and since i am just an graduate on computer science, i am interested in starting my career on Data warehousing side. so i thought of taking up "Cognos BI Modeller" course. i just want to know, since i haven't done any previous courses either in Datawarehousing or Cognos, is it a good idea to start the above mentioned course? if not would any one be able to give me a general guide on which courses to follow first please?

Any assistance on this would be greatly appreciated guys.
Thanks

[cipher]

Hi nadhiesh,

since you are a new user to cognos and data warehouse. i would suggest you to start with report studio, which is a reporting tool of cognos. infact i had started my career in cognos with report studio only and then after some time i started corelating framework manager and other cognos tools.

report studio will give u more understanding with respect to how reporting gets done through dimensional modelling. and in parallel you can also read the Ralph Kimbell's Mastering Data Warehouse book.

this way i think u will get enough idea on DWH.

All the best!!!
cipher.

[kc9400]

Reigniting an old thread here.

I am new to Cognos (Currently using 8 ) and SQL server 2008 R2, I am trying to find the best way to enter into this area. Currently I do QA with the additional tasks of running some basic queries on the server and creating some fairly simple reports via report studio.

How would I progress further? What qualifications and official training can I look at to better myself?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[MFGF]

A good place to start would be to look at what's involved in getting the Cognos 10 certifications. The landing page for these is here:

http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/certs/ba_index.shtml

I would probably start with the Reporting cert, then the metadata modelling, then build up from there. Each cert has recommended learning - see the details of each one to find out what that entails.

Good luck!!

MF.

[kc9400]

OK, I'll have a look around.

I'm very new to the whole IT area. I started work as a Tester around 6 months ago. I'm pushing learning SQL and Cognos.

Would it be wise to get my skills up with SQL and then work more towards Cognos?

The company I work for are more than willing to get me trained and educated so long as I show the drive and determination so I don't want to throw the opportunity away. Optimising my learning and finding the best route is what I'm trying to do.

[epic]

Sailing in the same boat, I have somewhat what similar situation. (so didn't start a new thread)

I am taking an introductory course in 'Cognos 10 BI' at a local institute. My tutor has covered all the basics of Framework manager, Query studio, Report studio, Event studio, Analysis studio and now hes' teaching 'Transformer/Power play studio'. He said after Transformer he will cover all the advanced concepts with a full blown project.

So I have two questions,

First, What the usual entry level certification is recommended? 
My tutor recommended COG-612 Author certification for an entry level career in DW/Bi. (why it's not listed here?)
And as per MFGF recommendation Cognos 10 BI reports.
So which one of them is better?(or some other option? I think Cognos 10 BI Author is a prerequisite test for Report cert.)

And second, Is my training(apart from recommended readings) will be sufficient to appear for either of above certification exams?
(Does my cognos course cover everything for the beginner's level...since the course structure wasn't clear I'm slightly confused ..would appreciate if u can list the remaining parts). I need an external opinion about my case.

Thanks in advance.

[MFGF]

Sailing in the same boat, I have somewhat what similar situation. (so didn't start a new thread)

I am taking an introductory course in 'Cognos 10 BI' at a local institute. My tutor has covered all the basics of Framework manager, Query studio, Report studio, Event studio, Analysis studio and now hes' teaching 'Transformer/Power play studio'. He said after Transformer he will cover all the advanced concepts with a full blown project.

So I have two questions,

First, What the usual entry level certification is recommended? 
My tutor recommended COG-612 Author certification for an entry level career in DW/Bi. (why it's not listed here?)
And as per MFGF recommendation Cognos 10 BI reports.
So which one of them is better?(or some other option? I think Cognos 10 BI Author is a prerequisite test for Report cert.)

And second, Is my training(apart from recommended readings) will be sufficient to appear for either of above certification exams?
(Does my cognos course cover everything for the beginner's level...since the course structure wasn't clear I'm slightly confused ..would appreciate if u can list the remaining parts). I need an external opinion about my case.

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

The Cognos 10 BI reports certification is, in fact COG-612: IBM Cognos 10 BI Author. The former description is the name of the certification you will achieve and the latter is the name of the exam you sit :) If you go to the Cognos 10 BI Reports certification page and scroll down, you will see it is achieved  by passing one exam - below this is a link to the COG-612 exam you will sit.

As long as your training covers the content in the IBM-run IBM Cognos Report Studio: Author Professional Reports Fundamentals and IBM Cognos Report Studio: Author Professional Reports Advanced you should be fine to sit your certification exam.

Good luck!

MF.

[epic]

Hi MFGF,

Thank you so much for such a limpid response. :D
And yes , I think my training does cover most of the practical aspects of the contents from that IBM-run fundamental course.
But I don't think I'm entirely comfortable with the Advance Course.
Can you please recommend a good book/online resources for this?

So, I was thinking of buying either of these (I need something in-between intermediate to advance level)

IBM-Cognos-Report-Studio-Practical
IBM-Cognos-Business-Intelligence-v10: The complete guide
IBM-Cognos-Business-Intelligence-10
Or some other books? Or websites/youtube-channels with test-cases/ scenarios or examples (learn by examples? There's too many tutorials and examples sprawled, I cant figure which ones relevant or valid)

Currently I have some of the freely available books like

IBM Cognos Report Studio User Guide 10.2.0(available at the certification page)
IBM Cognos 10.1 Handbook/Redbook
And couple of lecture slides/pdfs & handouts from my class.

Thanks in advance.

P.S. Just wondering is there any unofficial ibm cognos IRC channel?
P.P.S. +applaud   :D

[MFGF]

I only have experience of the official training materials, sorry. It would be worth looking at the topics covered in the "Author Professional Reports Advanced" course and trying to see which books or videos look like they will address these areas. You can also look at the sample questions for the COG-612 certification exam to see if you feel confident with the degree of detail they are looking for.

Good luck!!

MF.

[epic]

Thank you.
Yep! I think I need some practice with advance reports before jumping for the certification.