Certificate in Business Intelligence

Learn to drive your company’s future business success through data analysis that informs risk assessment and strategic decision making.

Villanova University’s 100% online Certificate in Business Intelligence program provides professionals in IT, business analysis, project management, marketing and other leadership roles with the knowledge and skills to make better use of their organization’s data. You’ll be taught key concepts including BI program management and architecture, data analytics best practices and how to create a Business Intelligence/Business Analytics Competency Center (BICC or BACC).

Get Certified in Business Intelligence

Complete Villanova University’s three-course Certificate in Business Intelligence program, a project and a certification exam, and you’ll earn both a professional certificate and Villanova’s Certified Professional in Business Intelligence (CPBI) credential.

Earning this certification validates your business intelligence knowledge and can help establish you as an expert who can design, implement and manage business intelligence initiatives that advance the goals of your organization.

What You’ll Learn

The courses can help you align BI initiatives with strategic goals, model and analyze data for strategic decision making, and leverage productive analytical techniques that drive better risk assessments and business potential. You’ll learn the importance of BI maturity assessments, organizational culture and data governance within analytics, along with a BI program manager’s perspective on data analytics best practices.

Required Courses

Essentials of Business Intelligence

This 100% online certificate course serves as an introduction to the value and structure of the key concepts in enterprise business intelligence and the related field of business analytics. You will learn about Business Intelligence/Business Analytics Competency Centers (BICC or BACC) and study the core skills of data management, warehousing, business intelligence requirements, business intelligence program management and data quality management, while learning to make more effective and efficient business analytics decisions.

What You’ll Study

Introduction to Business Intelligence

• History of Business Intelligence
• Business Intelligence Business Value and ROI
• Introduction to Data Warehousing
• Business Intelligence Lifecycle and Architecture
• Business Case for Business Intelligence

Organizing for Business Intelligence

• Business Intelligence Program vs. Business Intelligence Project
• Business Intelligence Sponsorship
• Enterprise Level vs. Departmental Level Business Intelligence
• BI Team Roles and Responsibilities
• Business Analytics Competency Centers/Centers of Excellence
• Data Governance and Change Management
• Communication and Promoting Business Intelligence

BI Development Phases and Methods Approaches

• The Major Phases of BI Program Delivery
• The Waterfall Approach to BI Program Management
• Agile Approaches to Business Intelligence Program Management
• BI Planning Phase Best Practices
• BI Implementation and Configuration Phase Best Practices
• BI Deployment Phase Best Practices

Data Warehousing

• Introduction and History of Data Warehousing
• Inmom Approach
• Kimball Approach
• Data Modeling Basics
• Metadata
• Big Data and Big Data Analytics Cloud-based BI and Data Warehousing

Data Quality and Architecture

• Data Quality Introduction
• Measuring Data Quality
• Poor Data Quality
• Improving Data Quality
• Disparate Data Sources
• Data Governance
• Master Data Management (MDM)

Business Intelligence Requirements Gathering

• Requirements Gathering Introduction
• Top-Down Requirements Gathering
• Bottom-Up Requirements Gathering
• Capture and Prioritize Requirements
• Agile Requirements Gathering Best Practices
• The Top 5 Categories of BI Requirements

Readiness for Business Intelligence and Maturity Models

• Business Intelligence Readiness Assessments
• Assessing Technology and Data
• Organizational Readiness Assessments
• Process and Procedures Readiness Assessments
• BA Competency Center/Center of Excellence and Readiness
• BI Maturity Models

Technology and Capability Review

• Modern BI Capabilities
• Selecting and Evaluating BI Technologies
• Selecting and Evaluating Data Warehouse Technologies Selecting and Evaluating Master Data Management Technologies
• BI Technology Disruptive Change
• BI Visualization Tools

Mastering Data Management and Technology

Building upon the foundation concepts of Essentials of Business Intelligence, this 100% online certificate course explores more advanced topics including data modeling, securing business intelligence content, reporting and performance management. With case studies and exercises, you’ll gain real-world insight into all facets of business intelligence.

What You’ll Study

Data Architecture and Quality

• Business Case for Improving Data Quality
• Data Quality Assessment
• Process Improvements, Source System Validation
• Attribute Constraints, Profiling and Precision
• Historical Data
• Real Time vs. Right Time
• Granularity for Analysis

Data Modeling

• Dimension Types
• Snowflake vs. Star
• Fact Types
• Aggregates
• Process for Designing

CDM and MDM

• Master Data Management (MDM)
• Customer Master Data
• Product Master Data
• Other Types of Master Data
• MDM Best Practices and Benefits
• MDM Team Creation and Scope

BI Front-End Tool Segments

• User Interfaces
• Waterfall Development
• Agile Methodology
• The Different Types of Online Analytics Processing
• Network Architecture
• Maintaining Your BI Application

Industry Standards

• Middleware (ODBC, ODBO, XMLA)
• MDX
• ETL
• SQL Introduction
• Common Warehouse Meta Model (CWM)
• HTML

Creating a Business Analytics Competency Center (BACC)

• BACC Review
• Initialization
• Define
• Establish
• Organize
• Operate

Technical Architecture

• Cloud-based BI and MDM
• Virtualization
• Load Balancing
• Performance Tuning
• On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP)

Success Factors and Constraints

• Leadership
• Business/IT Partnership
• Business Alignment Incentives
• Company Culture
• Change Management

Curriculum

8 Week Course

Success Factors and Constraints

• Describe the significance of leadership buy-in
• Name the three key characteristics of a strong and active sponsor
• Summarize ways to bridge the gap between Business and IT
• Discuss how to get people onboard and involved with your BI project, ways to build and maintain momentum, and how to align and design the right incentives
• Name and explain the five structured phases of change

BI Front End Tool Segments

• Describe scorecards, dashboards, and key performance indicators (KPI)
• Review waterfall methodologies as applied to BI programs and compare/contrast waterfall vs. Agile for BI program management.
• Discuss Agile program management methodologies and how they apply to Business Intelligence initiatives
• Outline the three types of Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)
• Discuss modern BI reporting capabilities

Advanced Data Architecture and Intelligence

Master the skills you need to lead and manage business intelligence initiatives. This 100% online course is designed to provide you with advanced data analytics and modeling skills, along with the best Extraction, Transformation and Loading (ETL) general BI program management skills needed to make sophisticated and effective business decisions. By successfully completing all three courses and the certification exam, you can achieve the exclusive Villanova certification as a Certified Professional in Business Intelligence (CPBI).

What You’ll Study

Report Design

• Types of Reports and Scenarios
• Gathering Agile Requirements
• Prototyping and Iteration
• Data Visualization Best Practices

Dashboard Design

• Types of Dashboards and Scenarios
• Best Practices in Dashboard Design
• KPIs/Metrics
• Understanding Interactivity
• Gathering Agile Requirements
• Prototyping and Iteration

ETL Best Practices

• ETL Best Practices
• Re-Usable Components
• Testing Procedures
• Transformation Management
• Impact Analysis and Data Lineage

Production Support

• Development/Testing/Production Environments
• Change Management Procedures
• Training Approaches
• Deployment Best Practices

Predictive Analytics

• Predictive Analytics
• Modeling Overview
• AI and Machine Learning-based Approaches
• Regression Models

SQL and MDX for Business Intelligence

• Understanding the relationship between MDX and SQL
• MDX Introduction, Cube Concepts, OLAP
• Best Practices in MDX vs. SQL Usage

Performance Management

• Performance Management Introduction
• Financial Planning – Top-Down and Bottom-Up
• Planning Beyond Finances
• Balanced Scorecard
• Scorecards vs. Dashboards for Business Performance Management

Curriculum

8 Week Course

Visualization and Design Best Practices

• Provide examples of visual distinction
• Present data using the Rule of Thirds and Fifths
• Describe the uses and benefits of various visual charts and graphs

Report Design

• Discuss information-oriented, analysis-oriented, static, parameterized, and formatted reports
• Identify requirement focus areas
• Analyze and document requirements
• Describe the need for prototyping and iteration

Learn About Data Analysis and Become a Certified Professional in Business Intelligence

Achieving this prestigious credential helps demonstrate that you have received comprehensive training in key concepts used by strategic business leaders to leverage enterprise data to maximize efficiency, identify opportunities and make informed business decisions that can transform an organization’s future.