GENERAL SSIS QUESTIONS

Question: Which versions of SSIS have you used?

Comment: Differences between 2005 and 2008 are not very big so 2005, 2008 or 2008 R2 experience
usually is very similar. The big difference is with 2000 which had DTS and it very different (SSIS is created
from scratch)
Question: Have you used SSIS Framework?
Comment: This is common term in SSIS world which just means that you have templates that are set up to
perform routine tasks like logging, error handling etc. Yes answer would usually indicate experienced
person, no answer is still fine if your project is not very mission critical.

Question: Do you have experienced working with data warehouses?

Comment: SSIS is in most cases used for data warehouses so knowledge of Data Warehouses Designs is
very useful.

Question: How have you learnt SSIS (on the job, articles, books, conferences)
Comment: The thing is that most people who read good books have usually an advantage over those who
hasn't because they know what they know and they know what they don't know (but they know it exists
and is available)…. Blog/Articles very in quality so best practise articles is a big plus+, conferences can be
also a plus.

Question: Do you have certifications

Comment: This is rather disappointed point for me. Qualifications generally are welcome but unfortunately
many people simply cheat. Companies run courses and then give questions and answers, or people find
them on the internet. I've met people who had certification but knew very little, I've met people very
experienced and knowledgeable without certification and people who have done certification for their self-
satisfaction and are experienced and knowledgeable. In other words be careful with certification…. It is easy
to get a misleading impression so make sure you ask the best questions for the position you can.

SSIS DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS

Question: How many difference source and destinations have you used?
It is very common to get all kinds of sources so the more the person worked with the better for you.
Common ones are SQL Server, CSV/TXT, Flat Files, Excel, Access, Oracle, MySQL but also Salesforce, web
data scrapping.

Question: What configuration options have you used?

Comment: This is an important one. Configuration should always be dynamic and usually is done using XML
and/or Environment Variable and SQL Table with all configurations.

Question: Gives examples where you used parameters?

Comment: Typically you use parameters to filter data in datasets (or data on reports) but you can also use
them to restrict values like the well-known make->model->year example. You can also have hidden and
internal parameters which get very handy for more advanced stuff.

Question: How to quickly load data into sql server table?

Comment: Fast Load option. This option is not set by default so most developers know this answer as
otherwise the load is very slow.
SSIS ADVANCED QUESTIONS
Question: What is XMLify component?
Comment: It is 3rd party free component used rather frequently to output errors into XML field which saves
development time.

Question: What command line tools do you use with SSIS ?

Comment: dtutil (deployment), dtexec (execution), dtexecui (generation of execution code)

I will try to find time to add more questions soon. Feel free to suggest new questions (add comments).

Hope that helps!

Emil

www.sql-server-business-intelligence.com