OBIEE How to get started

About two to four times a week I get an email or an OTN request from people who want to get started as an OBIEE consultant. In this “sticky” article I want to give you some basic starting points.
Get familiar with the basic terminology:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_intelligence

Before you start with anything get up to speed with dimensional modelling.

• http://www.kimballgroup.com/
  

(Get familiar with the works of Ralph Kimball)
Brush up your modelling capabilities, ADAPT is a good method to start with:

• http://www.symcorp.com/downloads/ADAPT_white_paper.pdf

Read up on your Data Warehouse /  BI basics:

• http://blogs.oracle.com/bimadeez/2010/06/data_warehousing_architect_-_a_beginners_guide.html

Get a clean (virtual) machine and first install an Oracle database. The 10g express version is OK for starters.

• http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/database/index.html

Maybe you want to brush up your DB skills:

• http://www.oracle.com/technology/obe/11gr1_db/index.htm

Next get the latest version of OBIEE

• http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/htdocs/devlic.html?url=/technology/software/products/ias/htdocs/101320bi.html

Download the documentation:

• http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/bi_ee.html

If you have everything installed work trough the OBE tutorials on OBIEE.

• http://www.oracle.com/technology/obe/obe_bi/bi_ee_1013/index.html

Don’t not only copy the click but be sure you understand what is happening!
Download and install the extended sales sample RPD and CAT. Dissect every report and dashboard to understand how the reports work.

• http://download.oracle.com/technology/products/bi/files/oracle_bi_sample_analysis_setup_files.zip

Have a good look around at the OTN forums. Most questions have been asked before.

• OBIEE forum: http://forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=378
• OBISE forum: http://forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=404

Read the works of Stephen Few on how to design a good dashboard from the visual standpoint:

• http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/Whitepapers/Common_Pitfalls.pdf
• http://www.amazon.com/Information-Dashboard-Design-Effective-Communication/dp/0596100167

Learn to create reports and dashboard which people need, which is often completely different of the reports and dashboard they intentionally asked for…

• http://www.orm.net/

If your start an 11g project brush-up your weblogic skills:

• http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/fusion-middleware/documentation/index.html

Configure your OTN account so that you “watch” certain users. Looking around at the forum you soon learn which users give the most valuable answers.
Start following the OBIEE related blogs. At this moment there are about 10 your really need to watch. (Check my blog list).
Must read material:

• http://greatobi.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/can-you-just-turn-answers-on/  {Jeff McQuigg}
• http://greatobi.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/using-report-specs-for-requirements/  {Jeff McQuigg}
• http://exoticexpedition.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/6-guiding-principles-of-obiee-dashboard-design/ {Deepanshu Mehta}
• http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/eye-on-obi/understanding-the-oracle-bi-server-see-the-light-31891 {Gerard Braat}
• http://www.biconsultinggroup.com/obiee-tips-and-tricks/ {BICG}
• http://greatobi.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/prototyping-with-obi/ {Jeff McQuigg}

If you need more practices check out the Oracle Learning Library:

• http://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=OTNCR:1:0 

Till Next Time