This is a continuation of an earlier post that discussed the problems of hand-coding using ETL tools.

What Went Wrong?

There
are two aspects of effectively leveraging an ETL tool. First is
learning the tool's mechanics. e.g. taking the tool vendors' training
either in a class or through their on-line tutorials. Most IT people
have no problem learning a tool's syntax.  Since they most likely
already know SQL, they learn the tool very quickly.

But the second aspect actually involves understanding ETL processes.
This includes knowing the data-integration processes needed to gather,
conform, cleanse and transform; understanding not only what is
dimensional modeling but why and how do you deploy it; being able to
implement slowly changing dimensions (SCD) and change data capture
(CDC); understanding the data demands of business intelligence; and
being able to implement error handling and conditional processing.

>>>continue reading this post on The Data Doghouse