Hello all… I am going to be teaching the XI Release 2 pre-conference training class at the International User Conference in Orlando and I thought I would ask everyone’s opinion on how you would prefer the format of the class be set up. I know that I do not really prefer the typical lecture style, but if that is what everyone would like, then so be it. Just let me know and I will do what I can to make the class the most interesting to everyone. Also, if you all have any particular questions that you would like to be addressed, then let me know those also so that I can make sure we are best prepared to answer them.
The class is filling up quickly so if you desire to be a part of this class, you might want expedite your enrollment.
I am not sure if my email address is visible for direct response, so please feel free to respond in the forum and I will take note and apply them to the course outline as needed.
Thank you for your participation as we will all gain valuable eXtreme Insight into the next release of Business Objects XI
Thanks Dave… I thought it might be more appropriate to just post to the forum. As a BOBJ employee, I can not answer specific questions to a product that has not technically been released, but I can be general. With that being said, I do not really want to give out my personal address as this could open the floodgates so to speak
It will definately be hands on. The format in question stems from the possibility of having either Lecture, where we have a pre-defined structure and go through the outline along with hands on activities, or have it more student led, kind of like a round table style where we can demo the product, give overview of new features, answer some generic generalized questions, and then open it up to the class to determine the additional topics covered. This will also be hands on. So it really does not matter which way we go, the class will be very technical and very hands on.
I can not say for sure it it will be out by the time the conference kicks off, but I can say with certainty that we will be able to answer specific questions regarding BusinessObjects XI Release 2. This class is not for an overview or sales presentation of the product. It will be a very technical hands on class geared towards migration 5.1.4 - 6.5.x deployments to our latest platform. We will go through several migration exercises and probably spend quite a bit of time on security and how BusinessObjects XI Release 2 differs from the Business Objects 5.x/6.x.
This is just one person’s opinion, of course. I would be terribly disappointed if I paid $595 to teach myself. We can get overviews from the marketing propaganda and the General Sessions. I have many opportunities to discuss things with other users while at the conference. If I want a hands-on demo with people available to answer technical questions, I’ll go to the Test Drive sessions for free. For that kind of fee, I expect to get a LOT of detailed, specific information. Can you cover everything in a one-day class? Maybe not, but it would not be unreasonable to also expect some takeaway documents with even more thorough information that I can use later back at the workplace.
I’ve been fortunate to be selected for the third year in a row as a track speaker at the conference. There are no extra fees to attend track sessions, but I’m fairly confident that I would not have been asked back if my session was “here’s an outline, now talk amongst yourselves and I’ll answer any questions you might have.” One of the themes from my session evaluations is that the specific, detailed, actionable content was the most appreciated.
OK, I know that I’ve exaggerated your proposal … quite on purpose … but hopefully you see what I’m saying. I’ll restate, this is just my opinion.
I’ve been asked to include r2 information in my Live Office presentation, and I asked the same question … what can I share if the product isn’t released before conference? I was told that for conference, anything specific to r2 (meaning contained in the Statement of Direction), would be fair game to share come conference time.
Dwayne…You are absolutely correct. One of the things that Business Objects has focused on this year is making sure that the documentation created for the pre-conference training classis are not just and “outline” or a copy of the powerpoint slides. I have personally written the manual that will be utilized in the BusinessObjects XI Release 2 class and I have to say that it will probably be more useful out of class than during. In my opinion, it is a great reference manual. You are also correct in that it will be very difficult to get down to the details of every aspect of Release 2, but we are certainly going to try. That is why I have asked the question out here as to what is most important to everyone that will be in this class so that we can focus heavily on those issues. If Security is overwhelmingly of concern to potential attendees, then we want to make sure that we focus more detail there. If change control and new features are important, we want to make sure that we address those issues in detail as well. I am just trying to get a pulse on what people would like so that we are sure to not disappoint. There is a lot of information to consider for a one day course, so obviously we will focus heavily on some issues and not on others, so that is why I wanted a little input.
Dwayne… one more thing after reading your post once again. Let me clarify what I meant by “…round table approach”. We have virtually every topic that can come up ready to go for this class and set up into subjects. If someone has a desire for a specific subject, then we have the ability to go into a lot of detail on that subject.
I am just looking for opinions. We can certainly standardize the class and just present what we think is important, but due to the fact that the information can be so vast that not all things will get covered in detail.
Ok… After this first day and from what Dwayne has expressed as concern, we are going to provide the class with a set structure and focus heavily on hands on migration from a 5.x, 6.x, and possibly a PM repo as well as security since it is vastly different in Release 2 than in the previous versions of BusinessObjects. We will try and leave plenty of time at the end for follow up questions.
Not a problem… I want this class to be very successful especially since I come from the old BusinessObjects background, I know how important this class is going to be for a lot of people. I am just about finished with the training materials and the manual that will be sent out with the student is probably going to be 100+ pages… it depends on how they format it during print Anyway, I hope I see a lot of you this year at the conference…
First, just wanted to say thanks for consulting the BOB community – it’s great to know our opinions count!
Just a question – I’m sure there are many of us who won’t be able to make the pre-conference training (I’m not arriving in Orlando til later Sunday, for example). Would Business Objects consider selling the student guide to those who couldn’t attend, do you think? Especially since you said it’s structured like a reference guide?
Just thought I’d ask!
Thanks, see you in Orlando! (Where, having identified yourself as a Classic -> XIrel2 person, you’ll probably be swamped!)
My suggestion is not to spend too much time on the 5.x to XI component. I’ve attended the webinars. It took an hour for them to tell us that 5.x converts to 6.5 before it converts to XI.
I want real world things to watch out for. I want to know about security and best practices as it relates to BO customers moving from Supervisor to XI. I also want some idea of how to do PM migration.
Sounds like you’re on the right track. I may actually attend the session rather than giving the seat to one of my team.
Amy… not a problem as you guys are really the reason we are here. As far as the manual goes, I would not think that I would be allowed as they would want the guide to be available as a suppliment to future classes. I will ask though and let you know.
You know, if you can find me, I am always available to the BOB community.
I will be attending your class and am hoping you will cover at some depth how to migrate the supervisor structure and functionality over to XI. The primary supervisor functions I am concerned with are things like row level security object level security and how the inheritance concepts of the old supervisor are implemented in XI.
Your comments about designing you class to be very concrete and hands on are very encouraging. As the system admin I need to have a course that gets into the nuts and bolts of the upgrade not the high level marketing fluff.
I will be looking forward to seeing you at the class.
If you want it to be, you can change that option in your profile. Or simply let folks respond in the topic as suggested.
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