a managerial approach to a decentralized report writing environment agenda historical perspective...
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A Managerial Approach to a Decentralized Report Writing Environment
Agenda• Historical Perspective and the Need for Change• Policies & Procedures• Group Training Session• One-On-One Mentoring Relationships• Security Concerns• Questions
A Managerial Approach to a Decentralized Report Writing Environment
Historical Perspective - 2005• Banner just implemented.• Support analysts busy learning base Banner.• Data Warehouse was incomplete and in it’s infancy.• Cognos implementation was in it’s infancy.• Immediate need to get information out of Banner resulted in a new Decision Support Team being formed.• Recognition that reporting, business intelligence, and data warehousing is a discipline all it’s own.
A Managerial Approach to a Decentralized Report Writing Environment
Historical Perspective – 2007• Banner implementation more stable.• Support analysts very comfortable with base Banner.• Data Warehouse is largely complete and mature.• Dependency on information coming out of Data Warehouse.• Recognition that our support analysts are ready to broaden their scope to some aspects of reporting and business intelligence.• Recognition that it is necessary to shift the focus of the Decision Support Team to higher level business intelligence initiatives.
Dickinson’s Architecture
Transaction Data Warehouse Reporting Environment
Local PC
Object Access Views
Custom Views
Banner PROD
Base Tables
• Advancement• Student• Finance• HR / Payroll• Financial Aid
PRODODS
Materialized
Object Access Views
Materialized
Custom Views
Cognos
Queries
Standard, Managed Reports
PowerCubes
Scorecards
Local PC
HTML docs
PDFs
Spreadsheets
CSV files
Recruitment Plus• Admissions
Adirondack• Residential Life
The Reporting Pyramid
Transactional
Tactical
Strategic
Information Need Delivery Method
Queries Reports Cubes Scorecards
A Managerial Approach to a Decentralized Report Writing Environment
Policies & Procedures• Document distributed to entire department - History & Background - Required Training - Procedures - Required Documentation - Security - Functionality Out of Scope
A Managerial Approach to a Decentralized Report Writing Environment
Procedures1. Support analyst (ASA) completes a Report Request / Change
form and submits to Decision Support Team for review.2. Decision Support determines if request is appropriate in scope
for ASA authorship and assigns to a specific person.3. ASA translates specification into PRODODS objects. Business
case is required to source from PROD.4. ASA develops and tests report on test server.5. ASA obtains functional sign-off.6. Decision Support moves the tested report to the production
server (restricted location).7. ASA and Decision Support test the report on production.8. ASA documents report on production.9. Decision Support approves final report and moves the report to
a production folder and adds Report Request / Change form to documentation folder.
A Managerial Approach to a Decentralized Report Writing Environment
Functionality Out of Scope• Security• Scheduling & Emailing• Move to Production• Crosstabs• Repeaters• Drill-throughs• Conditional Variables• Master-Detail Relationships• Bursting
A Managerial Approach to a Decentralized Report Writing Environment
Group Training Session• Guidelines & Procedures document• Report Request / Change form• Documentation Standards• Objects within Report Studio• Objects Properties Pane• Grouping & Sorting• SQL vs “Packages”• PRODODS vs PROD• Output Options• The “Dickinson” Way• What To Do In What Order
A Managerial Approach to a Decentralized Report Writing Environment
One-On-One Mentoring Relationships• Decision Support team acts as consultants as needed. • A natural outcome of the process.• Real learning happens with real-world problems.
A Managerial Approach to a Decentralized Report Writing Environment
Security Concerns• Privileges to all Cognos folders, reports, and functionality are controlled by Decision Support.• Database connections in Cognos are controlled by Decision Support and are limited by function.• Oracle accounts to which the Cognos database connections point are controlled by the DBA team.
A Managerial Approach to a Decentralized Report Writing Environment
Start of Group Training Slides
Reporting Request Form
• Must be filled out for each report.
• Submit to a member of the Decision Support Team for review and assignment (either to a DSA or an ASA, depending on scope).
• The completed form will be placed in the appropriate production folder accessible within Cognos Connection.
Documentation in Connection
Properties
Link to Report Documentation (Coming)
Report Documentation
Link
Documentation in Connection
Report NameReport
Description
Select Pages, Queries, or Variables
Objects in Report Studio
Objects in Report Studio - Pages
Objects in Report Studio - Pages
Insertable Objects
Properties
Objects in Report Studio - Pages
Insertable Data Items
Objects in Report Studio - Queries
Objects in Report Studio - Queries
Each report author group will have their
own data source signon.Select a data source before pasting in
your SQL code!
Objects in Report Studio - Queries
Objects in Report Studio - Variables
Objects in Report Studio - Variables
Objects in Report Studio - Prompts
Value PromptBased
on Query
Objects in Report Studio - Prompts
Query2 returns values
available in value prompt
Objects in Report Studio - Prompts
Value Prompt –
Static Choices
Objects in Report Studio - Prompts
Text Box Prompt
Objects in Report Studio - Prompts
Objects in Report Studio - Lists
Objects in Report Studio - Tables
Objects in Report Studio – Properties Pane
Shows properties associated with
whatever object is selected on the PAGE
pane
Shows parent objects of whatever object is selected on
the PAGE pane.
Objects in Report Studio – Grouping & Sorting
Basic Grouping & Sorting
Objects in Report Studio – Grouping & Sorting
Advanced Grouping & Sorting
Objects in Report Studio – Grouping & Sorting
AdvancedGrouping & Sorting
Objects in Report Studio – Grouping & Sorting
Sorting in a prompt
Objects in Report Studio – SQL vs Packages
• SQL code is portable.
• Directly coding SQL allows greater flexibility and complexity.
• Directly coding SQL allows you to dictate how Oracle will process the query, which is usually more efficient than Cognos-generated SQL.
• Directly coding SQL usually leads to faster development times.
• Directly coding SQL allows us to more fully take advantage of the power available in Oracle.
• Directly coding SQL is usually not appropriate for end users.
Objects in Report Studio – PRODODS vs PROD
• PRODODS Delivered Metadata:
file:///T:/Docs/software/sungardhe/ods_edw/docs/ODS_metadata_3.0/COMP_index.html
• PRODODS Custom Metadata:
file:///T:/Docs/software/sungardhe/ods_edw/docs/dc_custom/DC_CUSTOM_index.html
Dickinson’s Architecture
Transaction Data Warehouse Reporting Environment
Local PC
Object Access Views
Custom Views
Banner PROD
Base Tables
• Advancement• Student• Finance• HR / Payroll• Financial Aid
PRODODS
Materialized
Object Access Views
Materialized
Custom Views
Cognos
Queries
Standard, Managed Reports
PowerCubes
Scorecards
Local PC
HTML docs
PDFs
Spreadsheets
CSV files
Recruitment Plus• Admissions
Adirondack• Residential Life
Objects in Report Studio – Output Options
Click “Run with Options” to specify output format that is different from the default.
Objects in Report Studio – Output Options
Select the output type from the drop-down box.
Objects in Report Studio – Output Options
Choose another output format after running the report.
The “Dickinson” Way
• There is one version of the truth across campus: the data warehouse (regardless of which transactional system the data originally came from).
• Use Oracle for the heavy lifting.
• Source from PRODODS (business justification required to source from PROD).
• Name queries in a way that identifies their purpose.
• Queries used to populate prompt lists are named “________ Prompt”.
• Name prompt variables “Input ________”.
• Align prompts in a table with text labels in first column.
• Place filters in SQL instead of query object.
What To Do In What Order?
• Map data elements to PRODODS.
• Write query in Toad/Golden to generate raw report data.
• Paste query/queries into a new report in Cognos Report Studio (in your WIP folder).
• Follow the same query development process for any prompts to be used in the report.
• Summarize, group, and format report output appropriately.
• Documentation.
• Request Decision Support Team to review and move to production folder.
How Do We Proceed From Here?
• Try out the process.
• Work with a member of the Decision Support Team one-on-one to help you along as new requests are made.