Doug Lane

SQL Server Entertainer

How Documentation Leads Me to Smarter Programming

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“Okay, so these are the steps to take in order to run this process.

Step one: rename the file. Wait. Why would I rename the file? SSIS can do that for me in a script task. No need to bother the operator with that.

All right. Step one: copy the file to a staging folder…hang on….a script task can do that too. Let me just throw a File.Copy in there.

Step one: Open the Excel file and delete the header rows (1-5) on the sheet labeled “Data”.  Okay, step two. No, no, I can just tell the connection manager to ignore the first five rows. Let me go fix that up. There, much better.

Step one:…”

MCTS 70-448: Failure is a Fine Option

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This was the second time I failed a certification exam, and the first time I expected to fail. It’s also the first time I’ve been perfectly content with failing.

I took the MCTS 70-448 – Business Intelligence exam yesterday morning only because I had to. I signed up for the three-exam pack offered by Microsoft and Prometric on June 22, and as a requirement I had to sit for an exam before July 1. Having only eight days to study, I put my odds of passing around fifty-fifty. I knew I’d do well at Integration Services, I’d do very well at Reporting Services, and I’d need to remember everything I’d crammed in the last three days in order to salvage the Analysis Services section.

That’s pretty much how it went.

70-448 Exam Breakdown, Doug Lane, June 2011
What almost passing looks like

While the pass/fail result met my expectations, I was surprised to learn from the test that:

  • I know more than I thought I knew about deploying Integration Services.
  • I know less than I thought I knew about developing Reporting Services.
  • Apparently, I am as proficient at deploying SSAS solutions as I am developing an SSRS solution. (Riiiiiiiiiight.)

But most importantly:

  • With a score of 610, I was dangerously close to passing (700), and I will absolutely pass this exam on my second try.

I was happy about failing for two reasons. First, I didn’t crash and burn in any one category and my overall score tells me I’m on solid ground with this material. Second, I often hear that certifications (especially the lower-level Microsoft ones) are “not worth the paper they’re printed on.” Had I passed today, armed with little book knowledge and virtually no real-world experience of Analysis Services, I would have done the certification a disservice. I didn’t deserve it this time.

Fortunately, I have two things working in my favor for re-taking the exam. First, I have a free second shot (part of the exam pack offer), which I hope to take in the next 30 days, while the material is still fresh in my head. Second, I just started prototyping an Analysis Services solution — my first ever — at work. My boss is very enthused about the potential for this project, so I can allocate plenty of time to it right away. With a little hands-on experience and more study time, I’m going to do just fine on the re-take.

In my eleven-year history of certification exams, I’m now 8-for-10. That’s okay. Failing the 70-448 this time just feels right.

E-mail address strings in SSIS

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I came across an important distinction in address format while working on a script task.  The script task sends an e-mail using the System.Mail methods and I had been using the same address string as I had used in a Send Mail task upstream.  Turns out, for whatever reason, addresses in a Send Mail task are separated by commas, whereas addresses in a MailMessage.To need to be separated by semi-colon.