MSc in Business Intelligence
Overview
Most enterprises now collect very large quantities of data – customer data, sales data, HR data and so on. The problem is not usually collecting or storing that data, it is finding the information buried within it. Which are the most profitable customers, which the least, which products are the most profitable and so on? Business Intelligence describes a set of technologies that are used to extract information from data.
This innovative new degree will be delivered largely by Dr. Mark Whitehorn, the internationally recognised expert who specialises in the areas of data analysis, data modelling, data warehousing and business intelligence (BI). His main area of interest is best practice – with reference to the design and implementation of data management systems in general and BI systems in particular.
According to Gartner ("The Quest for Talent – You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet"), the leading IT research and advisory company, the BI world is desperately short of well-trained BI people yet a comprehensive understanding of BI is rare.
When BI skills are found, they are typically focused on the skills necessary to drive a particular product, not on a core understanding of how data should be structured and handled for analysis. However it is this core understanding that is crucial for the design of effective BI systems and hence is the key to the new MSc in Business Intelligence (BI) that is being offered by The School of computing at Dundee University.
So, for example, instead of focusing on how to drive a particular software package, the masters course is concerned with the underlying principles of BI.
For example:
• How does data differ from information?
• How can data be structured for transactions?
• How can it be structured for analysis?
• What is the difference between the Kimball and Inmon models?
• What is multi-dimensional data?
• How do we capture user’s analytical requirements?
• How can we use MDX (the analytical equivalent of SQL)?
However it is also important that students of the course will acquire practical skills and the course benefits from substantial industry involvement.
Industry involvement
The BI industry is huge but, in recent years, through acquisitions it has consolidated into a relatively small number of major players – notably (in tactful alphabetical order):
• IBM
• Microsoft
• Oracle
• Teradata
This is not to imply that other vendors are unimportant, but these four taken together represent a significant proportion of the entire BI industry.
The ways in which we can perform BI is, inevitably, heavily influenced by the software that the vendors produce. As a very simple example, Teradata has produced a very fast relational database management system. BI systems designed to use Teradata consolidate data into a relational data warehouse and run analytical queries directly against that. In contrast, BI systems designed for the Microsoft BI stack tend to consist of either a relational or dimensional warehouse. However analytical queries are not usually run directly against the warehouse, instead they are run against data marts. Data marts are typically subsets of the data from the warehouse which are held by a dimensional database engine which pre aggregates the data to improve query response time.
This program is avowedly vendor neutral in the sense that it does not actively support one vendor’s approach over any other. Instead it presents the main approaches that are currently taken to BI and explains their pros and cons.
However, there is a catch. If this vendor-neutrality is taken to extremes, then the students would never see or use any vendor’s software and would be unable to perform any practical work. This is clearly unacceptable in such a practical subject. One alternative is to expose the students to software from every vendor; the problem here is that this is likely to result in a very high workload for the students just so that the program can demonstrate its vendor agnostic credentials. So the students will actively use software from at least two of the major vendors (Microsoft and Teradata); in addition the students can expect to see and hear about the products from all the major vendors.
Format of course
The course runs from 18 January 2010 until 17 January 2011.
The programme consists of three taught modules in semester 1 (January – March), three taught modules in semester 2 (April – June) and a research project in semester 3 (July – December). See below for more details of the module contents. The programme will be available for both full time attendance and part-time.
The full time course is specifically aimed at home and international BSc and MBA graduates who wish to know more about this topic and significantly improve both their employment and pay prospects.
The part time course is essentially identical to the full time except that the students will take two years to complete the course rather than one. It is specifically aimed at professionals currently working in database and related business and industry.
For more information see the course details
Entry Requirements
We normally expect applicants to have a 2.1 degree in computing or the equivalent. However, if you don’t meet this requirement you may still apply in which case you will need to prove that you have equivalent experience in the field in order to be accepted onto the course. If you don't have a recent computing degree then we will need to see a full CV and you may be asked to attend an interview at Dundee with an academic panel. That CV should contain all the usual material that makes up a normal CV. However, in addition, you may want to include information that answers the following questions:
- Do you have some ‘internet community’ recognition – for example, are you an MVP (Microsoft Valued Professional)?
- Have you acquired any technical/commercial qualifications – such as being an Oracle certified DBA or attended any relevant commercial courses?
- How much experience do you have in the database industry – number of years, achievements?
- How much experience do you have in the BI industry– number of years, achievements?
- Have you any experience of MDX?
- What database/BI software have you used?
If you are not sure if your degree is eligible then please contact us for advice.
If you don't have a recent Computing degree then apply before 23rd November 2009. We may need to invite you to an interview at the start of December in order to determine if you are suitable for the course.
If you do have a recent Computing degree then you should apply before 4th Jan 2010.
Applications should be made online using UKPASS.
If your first language is not English, you also need to provide evidence of a sufficient level of proficiency in English. The School of Computing requires one of the following qualifications or the equivalent:
- TOEFL 580 (or 237 for the computer based test)
- IELTS 6.0
The International Office has more information on the English language qualifications accepted by the University.