Tm1 books

[jameswebber]

Anyone else brought the IBM Cognos TM1 Cookbook?
What did you think of it?
My review is here:
http://www.amazon.com/IBM-Cognos-Cookbo ... 255&sr=8-1

[Alan Kirk]

Anyone else brought the IBM Cognos TM1 Cookbook?
What did you think of it?
My review is here:
http://www.amazon.com/IBM-Cognos-Cookbo ... 255&sr=8-1

Well, you thought more highly of it than the other reviewer. Marginally.

However...

I was also disappointed because I think very highly of Wim Gielis (one of the contributing authors)

I believe that Wim said that he reviewed the book and corrected (or attempted to correct) some typos, not that he was one of the authors. If that's the case it would be a bit unfair to lay blame for the choice of content at his doorstep.

([...] and [...])

Were those the undercover authors, or did Amazon redact you?

(For the record I played no part in writing, reading, nor do I have any connection with the IBM Cognos TM1 Cookbook.)

[jameswebber]

Just links to Wims site and a really good post he made.
Didn't know that amazon would kill my links.

My mistake re Wims involvement.
When I saw his name I though this is going to be gold.

The section on contributor isn't too bad.

Hoping the official book will be better, but really think this cookbook should be renamed to summary of IBM TM1 documents for beginners.

[Wim Gielis]

Hello there,

I reviewed the book, but after the say first 3-4 chapters it was clear that the author would not implement my changes. Too bad.
I was told that the grammatical errors and errors in the text would be corrected as well (I did not have to bother) but apparently, they did not do this. Yet, they were all in the Word documents I sent back.
The book should have been targeted to people new to TM1, not to the experienced (admin) users or consultants that have been played around with the tool for some time. These people will learn almost nothing. People new to TM1 can learn from the book (supplemented by other material like the PDF manuals or this forum a.o.).
Just as you I find that the book title is misleading.
I was asked to review a second book on TM1 but I declined the offer

Wim

[jameswebber]

You should write one Wim,
I'd buy it!

[Alan Kirk]

You should write one Wim,
I'd buy it!

I'd love to work out the hourly rate of return that Wim will get for his time on that one.

(Which is the main reason that some of the admins here considered, and rejected, the idea of writing one a few of years back. I doubt that even the official one will make money but was probably seen as (and subsidised as) a necessary marketing expense by Iboglix. I'd lay odds that some of the Microsoft Press titles are in the same boat.)

[jpm_de]

There is a new and first official TM1 book available, including thoughts on the newly released V10.1!

http://www.amazon.com/IBM-Cognos-TM1-Of ... =pd_cp_b_0

Great book with superb value for money.

[Alan Kirk]

There is a new and first official TM1 book available, including thoughts on the newly released V10.1!

http://www.amazon.com/IBM-Cognos-TM1-Of ... =pd_cp_b_0

Great book with superb value for money.

And in keeping with being at the cutting edge of technology it's available in exactly one format; softback dead trees.

I've recently been updating my library with current version editions of textbooks; SQL Server, Office 2010, the .Net framework, VB.Net, Windows 7 and Server 2008, programming style guides etc, etc; a couple of hundred dollars worth in total. And not one of them has been a physical copy, thus saving not only paper consumption and the energy expended in physical distribution but also literally several metres of shelf space... and literally a couple of thousand dollars of cost. (In the case of O'Reilly, multiple formats, and DRM free.) Oh, and they're searchable within my readers. (Kindle, PC reader, etc.)

Yet this one is available in one format... paperback.

Come on in to the 21st century Iboglix, the water's fine!

[Alan Kirk]

Interestingly I did note that there's another new title that will be released in the future:

IBM Cognos TM1 Developers Certification guide

I have no idea who James D Miller is, though there's a bio sketch on the Packt Publishing site which describes him as having "been in the IBM Cognos TM1 consulting practice since 2004 with a primary focus on architectural design, development and implementation of business performance management projects". Of course that's the primary concern; it's another Packt Publishing title. That sends up a couple of caution flags, but I wouldn't make a judgement on that basis alone.

[jameswebber]

You can now download the first chapter of the IBM Cognos TM1 The Official Guide
Here:
http://www.mhprofessional.com/product.p ... 0071765697#

[Alan Kirk]

You can now download the first chapter of the IBM Cognos TM1 The Official Guide
Here:
http://www.mhprofessional.com/product.p ... 0071765697#

Please Register.

You must be a member to take advantage of these downloads.

Enter your email address and click the ENROLL NOW button.
If you're already enrolled simply enter the email address you used.

Or to translate,
"You must give us your e-mail address so that we have the opportunity of adding you to our database so that we can spam the s**t out of you".

In addition to which the download is chapter 1, "Challenges to Meeting Enterprise Performance Management Requirements" which is, I'd wager, a mixture of "mom and apple pie principles" and "the bleeding obvious". Though granted it's perhaps not quite as much of a waste of time as the promotional bumpf that chapter 2 "The Promise of In-Memory Analytics with IBM Cognos TM1" sounds like. Chapter 4 sounds like the first one that's worth the reading time.

Or put another way... Pass.

[jameswebber]

So I see there is another TM1 book on the market

IBM Cognos TM1 Developer's Certification guide
http://www.packtpub.com/ibm-cognos-tm1- ... apr#author
Written by Jim Miller http://blogs.perficient.com/businessint ... r/jmiller/ looks quite good..
I probably won't buy it as I passed the cert exam by reading the manuals

I think the official guide http://www.amazon.com/IBM-Cognos-TM1-Of ... 0071765697 is the most useful book I have seen.
Yes Alan's comments about the harvesting of emails if you sign up for the free chapter aside. I brought it from Amazon and am finding it useful, other reviews seem to agree.

Still not rating the Cookbook http://www.amazon.com/IBM-Cognos-Cookbo ... 1849682100

[Alan Kirk]

So I see there is another TM1 book on the market

IBM Cognos TM1 Developer's Certification guide
http://www.packtpub.com/ibm-cognos-tm1- ... apr#author
Written by Jim Miller http://blogs.perficient.com/businessint ... r/jmiller/ looks quite good..
I probably won't buy it as I passed the cert exam by reading the manuals

It's the same one that I mentioned in the post-before-last that I made in this thread.

[jameswebber]

Opp sorry missed that Alan.

Are you going to get the official guide Alan or are you boycotting it because of the lack of ebook / 21st century production techniques.

Really like your posts on you tube btw http://www.youtube.com/user/TheTM1Channel

[Alan Kirk]

Opp sorry missed that Alan.

Are you going to get the official guide Alan or are you boycotting it because of the lack of ebook / 21st century production techniques.

Not so much "boycotting" exactly. It's more {deep breath} "I'd be curious to read it but don't have an actual need for it at this time, therefore I would have bought it had it been available as an e-book but since I'm moving for the first time in 16 years shortly and have to / want to de-clutter my life markedly (including replacing most of my textbooks with e-books and digitising/OCRing literally thousands of pages of old reference materials {thank you, thank you Fujitsu for the wondrous SnapScan S1500 which I wish I'd known about years ago; 10,000 pages in 25 days and still going strong}, it would seem to be a bit illogical to re-clutter my study with another dead tree when I don't absolutely have to."

Really like your posts on you tube btw http://www.youtube.com/user/TheTM1Channel

Ah, thank you, but they're more a source of embarrassment at the moment in that they're months behind schedule and were sidelined by the same moving project. Though once that's all out of the way and my new study looks more like a zen garden than Doc Emmett Brown's laboratory, I should be back on track with all of the outstanding ones, albeit with the added complication that I have to dash through all of the 9.5.2 ones then start on a 10.1 series. It's no great secret that the disclaimer that will appear at the end of the next one will be "No deadlines were harmed in the making of this film."

[jameswebber]

I was given a copy of the IBM Cognos TM1 Developer's Certification guide book to review, I also had brought the Official IBM guide so if you are interested in an independent review of all three TM1 books in the market check out all three of my reviews below.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-rev ... centReview

My pick value for money wise has to be the IBM Cognos official guide.. but lets be honest no doubt highly subsided by IBM.

[jim wood]

Good reviews James thanks for sharing.

[declanr]

Wow... a book specifically designed to teach people how to get certificated in the development of TM1 without actually having experience... that is exactly what this industry needs

On the point of the actual topic though I have been given copies of both the cookbook and the official IBM book; below would be my reviews:
Cookbook - Unbelievably bad.
Official Guide - Surprisingly informative.

[jameswebber]

Declanr,
Yes I was also surprised the IBM book was so good.
Unusually for IBM documentation. The other good document is the TM1 rules guide which was based on the ACG rules guide by David Friedlander.

[Forum_Fawn]

Hey all,

Just wanted to share a little insight on the Jim Miller "TM1 Developer Certification Guide" and the "TM1: The Official Guide." Although just released in late April, Mr. Miller's book is already out of date. (I sure would hate to be his Agent right now...) The book claims to "fast track your way to COG-310 Certification," which was replaced by the COG-702 not even a month after it was released. Given previous posts that mocked COG-310's complexity, the $64.99 suggested retail is a joke. On the other hand, "The Official Guide" is a phenomenal resource. If only we could convince IBM to replace the 497 separate pdf guides with an online version of this book, the TM1 developer world would be a happier (and better?) place.