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It’s important for a consultant to be able jump into a situation and quickly evaluate and assess the dynamics involved, in order to serve the client efficiently and effectively and economically. While a lot of people dislike military metaphors, there are a lot of good lessons to learn from military thinking. This is one area …
Continue reading Consulting 101: Viewing the Field

One important thing about which to be self-aware is how you interpret communication. Communication is a two-phase commit. The first part lies with the person communicating. She has an idea she wishes to communicate, and she communicates it – in writing or verbally. The second part is with the person (or people) to whom the …
Continue reading Interpreting Communication

In my article titled A Custom Execution Method – Level 19 of the Stairway to Integration Services posted at SQL Server Central, I created a stored procedure to execute SSIS packages stored in the SSIS Catalog. Really, all I did was build a rudimentary wrapper for the stored procedures used by the SSIS Catalog to …
Continue reading Executing SSIS: Run SSIS Packages in the SSIS Catalog via Stored Procedure

Self-awareness is an important trait. I believe it is especially important for consultants. For each of us, there is some gap between reality and what we perceive. I believe one measure of humility (or pride) is this self-awareness delta. I also believe we can narrow this gap by engaging in exercises in intentional awareness. Which …
Continue reading Self-Awareness – Feedback

Managing Geeks – A Journey of Leading by Doing is now available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions! Many people have expressed interest in obtaining an electronic copy of Managing Geeks. I’m sorry it took this long, but it is finally available. On a related note, I now know a lot more about self-publishing. …
Continue reading Managing Geeks Now Available for the Kindle!

A Custom Execution Method – Level 19 of the Stairway to Integration Services is live at the Stairway to Integration Services site at SQL Server Central! Enjoy! :{>

I credit my friend and brother, Chris Yates (Blog | @YatesSQL), for inspiring me to write this post with his (excellent) post: Reports in SSIS. If I had a nickel for each time I’ve been asked, “What permissions are required for SSIS?” I would have a lot of nickels. It’s a fair question with an …
Continue reading Administering SSIS: Security-related SSIS Questions

“The SSIS Catalog is a database and an application.” – Andy Leonard, circa 2015 If there’s one thing I want you to get from this post, it’s this: The SSIS Catalog is a database and an application. While it’s a pretty cool database and application, it isn’t anything different from the databases and applications you …
Continue reading Administering SSIS: Parsing SSIS Catalog Messages for Lookups

My lovely bride and I visited Paris last year for SQL Saturday 323. We stuck around a few days to do touristy stuff and we learned a lot about the history of France. While reading about an uprising in the late 1800’s, Christy stumbled upon the story of l’affaire Dreyfus (the Dreyfus Affair). In 1894 …
Continue reading When Wronged…

When you create an SSIS Project using SQL Server Data Tools – Business Intelligence (SSDT-BI), a new, empty SSIS package is added to the project. It is named “Package.dtsx.” One of the first things you want to do is rename this package, providing a more descriptive and more unique name. To rename the package, right-click …
Continue reading Getting Started with SSIS: Renaming Your First Package