Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 15:17:09 -0400
Reply-To: Gary.M.McQuown@FRB.GOV
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: Gary McQuown <Gary.M.McQuown@FRB.GOV>
Subject: Re: Essential-but-overlooked Technical skills in SAS?
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My personal opinion (worth a cup of coffee if accompanies by at least two
quarters) is that beyond the "basics",
there is not a single set of SAS skills required or preferred.
The attached pdf file contains a chart of the SAS course paths and below
that is the training curricula. The
common starting point may be "Accessing and Manipulating Data", but
further development, and training
will depend greatly upon the industry and the nature of the job.
Perhaps the original question should be re-submitted with a by statement:
by industry (finance, health care, pharmaceutical, social science,
military, etc.)
by task (reporting, statistics, data management, application
development, etc.)
Enjoy,
Gary McQuown
www.dasconsultants.com
(See attached file: path_curric.pdf)
Training Paths
SAS Training Curricula
SAS Institute's Training Services offers a variety of comprehensive training curricula to help you meet your unique business
information goals with the SAS System. Courses access all aspects of the SAS System: data access, data management, data
analysis, data presentation, data warehousing, and applications development. Product-specific curricula allow students to focus on
the particular product's usage most pertinent to their business needs.
View path
Accessing and Manipulating Data
Accessing data quickly and easily from many different sources is one of the strengths of the SAS System. You can learn to
access data from Database Management Systems (DBMS), flat files, operating system-specific file structures, or other software
products through the many tools that the SAS System provides.
View path
Presenting Your Information
The SAS System offers a wide variety of reporting tools to help you present your information exactly as you would like. You can
learn how to create graphical reports or textual reports, as well as how to combine the two types. Subsequent courses then teach
you how to publish reports or create dynamic reporting applications by using the Web or an EIS.
View path
Applications Development
Data-driven, menu-based applications are quick and easy to create using the SAS System. Also, these systems can be
extensively customized and extended. This training plan outlines the courses required to gain a rounded knowledge of the
object-oriented tools available to the applications developer. You can focus your training on creating user interfaces and/or on
building the behind-the-scenes information for your application.
View path
Web Enablement
Utilizing Web technology for Web publishing, report distribution, and dynamic applications extends the advantages of the SAS
System for decision support, data visualization, data mining, statistical analysis, and ad hoc reporting. Courses guide how to use
SAS Web publishing tools and SAS/IntrNet software to communicate more effectively within and outside of large and geographically
widespread user bases.
View path
Data Mining
SAS Institute's data mining curriculum is designed to give business decision-makers an overview of the advantages of data mining
and provide analysts with the tools to uncover valuable information from their data. Courses include advanced methods for exploring
and modeling large amounts of data.
View path
Data Warehousing
The SAS System provides a complete end-to-end data warehouse solution -- from organizing and managing your data to exploiting
it regardless of the source. This training plan is designed to show you where the SAS/Warehouse Administrator(TM) course fits into
the rest of the curriculum, as well as identify other courses useful to anyone involved with implementing and maintaining a SAS
data warehouse.
View path
IT Service Vision
These courses teach the skills needed for users at all levels of an IT organization to use IT Service Vision, the SAS Solution for
Performance Management. Courses are appropriate for CIOs, IT management, capacity planners, network administrators, and
systems programmers who strive to integrate IT goals with corporate business goals.
View path
CFO Vision
Financial consolidation, analysis, and reporting are facilitated through the use of CFO Vision software, with easy end-user control of
system usage and management. Courses provide the skills to take full advantage of this financial management software.
View path
HR Vision
Today's human resource professionals need to understand their workforce and quantify the impact of decisions about compensation
policies, hiring, and employee turnover. These courses teach you how to access, analyze, and present your HR data using HR
Vision, SAS's decision support system for HR professionals.
View path
Enterprise Reporter
Focusing on report design for nontechnical, business professionals, Enterprise Reporter courses enhance the SAS end-to-end
solution for data warehousing, OLAP, and presentation-style reporting. Richly formatted reports can be created and results
disseminated on everything from paper to the Internet.
View path
Statistical Analysis
The SAS System has a long tradition of providing extensive support for most statistical analyses. Ready-to-use procedures handle
a wide range of statistical techniques including simple descriptive statistics, data visualization, analysis of variance, regression,
categorical data analysis, multivariate analysis, cluster analysis, and nonparametric analysis. All courses level II and above require
some amount of statistical knowledge. Please refer to the course descriptions for further details.
View path
JMP
The statistical visualization capabilities of JMP software unite the various statistical methods and techniques in exploratory data
analysis and statistical graphics. Courses provide the tools that can teach you how to explore, analyze, and interpret data by using
a variety of statistical methods for tasks including market research, quality assurance, and business process improvement.
View path
StatView
These courses enable users to acquire the background, knowledge, and skills to perform a variety of statistical analyses using
StatView software, including basic data exploration, hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, and regression analysis.
View path
Doug Zirbel <doug_zirbel@HOTMAIL.COM>@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on 09/07/2000
12:10:27 PM
Please respond to Doug Zirbel <doug_zirbel@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sent by: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
cc:
Subject Essential-but-overlooked Technical skills in SAS?
:
I posted this query, with slightly different wording, last Friday, and was
surprised by some of the results.
Namely, several of you stressed sound theoretical understanding of the
software development process (syst dev life cycle, Carnegie-Mellon Software
Engineering Institute Capability Maturity Model, documentation,
requirements-gathering) etc.
In other words, there are some higher-level skills which should be part of
"the basics." Point well taken.
Now, what about those strictly technical SAS skills? Yes, everyone should
know how to write a data step, proc print etc etc, but...
don't you run into SAS programmers from time to time, who are simply not
even aware of some function or proc that you use all the time?
... or, (null hypothesis) do all experienced SAS programmers already know
90% of the "most productive SAS technical skill set"?
path_curric.pdf [application/pdf]
