SQL Server 2005 Pivots with Dynamic columns

http://www.simple-talk.com/community/blogs/andras/archive/2007/09/14/37265.aspx

Report Development - Report Requirements Document

The purpose of report requirements document is to define the requirements for each report or group of reports.

Personally I don’t like to read 80 pages of technical documentation for a report. Nor would I want to scratch my head wondering what the report is doing Vs what it is supposed to do.

Here is a quick checklist of items to include in the report requirements documentation

• Business need for the report
• Requirements from the point of view of the end users
• The selection and the filter criteria
• Data elements in the report
• Calculations if any
• Parameters in the report
• Sort, grouping and totaling requirements
• Appearance and style requirements (i.e. layout of the report, column names to be shown etc)
• Performance requirements (speed and latency)
• Security requirements (who needs access to the report)

Microsoft Chart Controls

Great blog about ASP.net charting control

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/11/24/new-asp-net-charting-control-lt-asp-chart-runat-quot-server-quot-gt.aspx

Bad Data Models

We all know what a good data model is and spend significant time designing a good data model. So if there are good data models then there are bad data models too.

There is a difference between incorrect data models and bad data models. An incorrect data model would not satisfy business requirements and hence they don't make to the implementation. But bad data models would get implemented. They do more harm to the system. Every part of the application has to compensate for the bad data model.

Bad data models evolve due to various reasons – time and resource constraints, inexperience, over engineered modeling and sometimes sloppiness.

SQL Server 2008 – Maximum Capacity Specs

I found this article which gives the maximum size specifications for SQL Server 2008

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143432.aspx

SQL Server 2008 Min and Max Date Ranges

Here are the Minimum and Maximum date ranges

SQL Server 2005
Min Date: 1753-01-01 00:00:00.000
Max Date: 9999-12-31 23:59:59.999

SQL Server 2008
Min Date: 0001-01-01 00:00:00.000
Max Date: 9999-12-31 23:59:59.999