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Growing Your Own Power Users

Posted on January 25, 2021 by Bill Langston

IT Managers, IBM i programmers, and operators often express frustration over the challenge of supporting non-technical software users. Many shops succeed thanks to only one or two non-IT staff members who learn quickly and informally. They become the office “power users.”

What? You don’t think you have any of those kinds of people? We say grow your own.

Power users are particularly helpful when you deploy query, reporting, and analytics software. They can dramatically increase your return on investment if they understand your business, your data, and some IBM i basics. We’ll assume your business users have Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office skills and a good grasp of how your company operates—but you might be unsure of what they should know about IBM i. We suggest the following short list:

1. Db2 on i

• What is a library, file (table), record (row), and field (column)?
• What is a physical file and a logical file, and how is data organized into these files in your database?
• What are fields, field types (alphanumeric, numeric, date, etc.), and edit codes?
• What is the relationship between a query and your database?

2. IBM i fundamentals:

• What are output queues, spool files, and job logs?
• What is the integrated file system (IFS)?
• Where should you store queries and query output to comply with company security practice?

Start with this list, and let us know any other topics you feel we’ve overlooked. Thanks.

From our experience, the job can be made much easier if you invest a little time in teaching your business users some IBM i database and operating system basics.   

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