If you’re fortunate enough to have co-workers who’ve been working with Monarch or other information system software for a reasonable length of time, then it’ll be easier for you to take advantage of the idea behind day 26 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Monarch Modeler series.

Your Task for Today

No lofty lead-in for today’s homework, I’m afraid, as today’s idea is all about work: what was done, why it was done in that way and how do you do it.

The goal today is to expand your horizons and exposure and get hands-on time with, ideally, someone else’s Monarch models. If you find yourself working stranded on a virtual island, then seek out someone like a database analyst or other systems professional. Heck, if necessary take the person in your office that has the biggest interest in technology out for lunch.

If you can acquire a few models and possibly project files from a co-worker, then spend as much time as you can reviewing every aspect of the files. Examine how the templates were developed, what sorts of calculations were built and which of Monarch’s special features like address blocks and filters were utilized, and how. If summaries were created, how were they structured? Are there custom calculations in the summaries?

You might find that even something as subtle as the naming conventions for fields may influence how you name the fields in your future models. Or you might see something that you’d just as soon avoid, thank you very much.

This exercise will potentially serve two purposes, especially if you’re just been using Monarch for a relatively short while.

1. You gain invaluable insight into the model creation process that will hopefully assist you in some fashion with your future work, and/or
2. It will boost your confidence in your Monarch abilities and this boost will help you be aware that you’re doing just fine and that instead of wondering if you’re really “getting it”, you’ll now know for certain.

I’m under the impression that more often than not, learning how to make the most of Monarch is a task undertaken by individuals rather than teams.

If you’re literally the only person around that uses Monarch, meet with your local systems information person and chat about the sorts of challenges that you both face and the processes that the systems person undertakes to accomplish what it is that do. Try to focus on the “why” and the generalities of “how”, rather than on the specific tools that they use in their work. Hopefully this conversation will provide you with some insights regarding the options you can consider for your work with Monarch.

All is not lost if you’re the only Monarch user and there isn’t a systems person to be found. Techies are everywhere and usually more than willing to share their interests with a willing listener. Start the conversation by describing what it is that you’re doing with Monarch, and even if doesn’t lead into a two-way dialog about what can be done with Monarch, you might find that just talking out your challenges will lead you to make the connections and think through the solutions that you need.

You may even find that your techie friend now wants to know as much as you about this Monarch stuff, and that’ll be great. But we’re getting just a little ahead of ourselves now.

Move Outside of Your Comfort Zone

If you’ve followed along with the series, you’ve got the fundamentals (and then some) to build some great solutions for developing actionable information. But there’s a certain something to be said for learning from the great (and sometimes, maybe even more importantly, not so great) works created by others.

You might even surprise yourself and discover that you’re truly beginning to excel with Monarch.

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Continue your commitment to Become a Better Monarch Modeler with Part 27 of the series, or review Part 25.