IBM Cognos 10 BI Architecture and Components

IBM Cognos 10 BI Architecture and Components

This chapter discusses the high-level architecture of IBM Cognos Business Intelligence (BI) and its various components.

IBM Cognos BI is designed for performance, scalability, openness, and availability required to implement a robust enterprise BI solution. It has a zero footprint, a web-based user interface, and administration capability that make it easy to implement and use. It is based on a mature, proven technology platform and is designed to scale for hardware and software, which can address the growing performance needs of your BI implementation.

OPEN ARCHITECTURE

IBM Cognos BI architecture is completely open to third-party products and custom development. Designed on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that enables organizations to leverage their existing technologies and implement a BI solution that is platform-independent, it uses a set of peer-to-peer services that can be located anywhere on the network. Any service can satisfy a request making the system fault-tolerant. It uses platform-independent web service technologies such as Extensible Markup Language (XML), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), and Web Services Definition Language (WSDL), which make integration with other applications, portals, application servers, and so on easy. For this reason, it can also easily integrate with your existing infrastructure. You can extend IBM Cognos BI by using the Software Development Kit.

IBM Cognos BI provides built-in dynamic load balancing and failover features, and can easily integrate with web farms.

SUPPORTED OPERATING SYSTEMS

IBM Cognos BI is supported on UNIX®, Linux®, and Microsoft® Windows® operating systems. IBM Cognos BI is supported on both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems on Windows. Cognos 10.2 provides z/OS® support, UNIX and Linux on 64-bit operating systems, and both 32-bit and 64-bit on Windows.

For a complete list of supported versions, refer to the supported environments section of the IBM Cognos support website: http://tinyurl.com/cg2ykex or the IBM Cognos Architecture and Deployment Guide.

SUPPORTED DATA SOURCES

IBM Cognos BI is designed for optimized access to data sources such as relational, online analytical processing (OLAP) cubes, XML, SAP BW, IBM Cognos content, and others. It supports major RDBMS such as IBM DB2®, Oracle, SQL Server®, Sybase, and so on. For a complete list refer to the supported environments section of the IBM Cognos support website: http://tinyurl.com/cg2ykex.

GLOBAL AUDIENCE

IBM Cognos BI is developed using UNICODE encoding system, is designed for a global audience, and supports multiple languages. Its user interface is available in multiple languages such as English, Japanese, French, Italian, and Dutch, to name a few. For a complete list, refer to IBM Cognos Architecture and Deployment Guide.

LOCALES

IBM Cognos BI supports different locales that cater to your reporting needs. By default it ensures that all locales use a consistent format. A locale basically specifies the cultural convention for date, time, currency, collation, character type and messages, and linguistic information.

The locale in IBM Cognos BI consists of the following parts, separated by a dash (–):

• The first part is a two-character-set code, such as en (for English) that specifies the language.

• The second part is a two-character-set code such as us (for United States) that specifies the regional setting.

You must cater to each one of the following:

• Product locale: Controls user interface language and error messages.

• Content locale: Defines language and regional settings for Content Manager objects, Framework Manager objects, Content Manager data formatting, report data formatting, report text (titles), and database data.

• Server locale: Ensures all log messages are in the same language. In a distributed environment this is received by the Content Manager. It is recommended that you do not change the server locale after defining your IBM Cognos groups and roles when implementing security.

• Author locale: Based on the content locale and impacts the report and query specification. Metadata models must support the author locales for report building.

• User locale: Specifies the default settings the user wants for date, time, and numbers. This information is used by the IBM Cognos BI server to present information to the users.

Preferences may be defined at various levels; however, IBM Cognos BI can determine the following sequence of precedence to present the data to you. Preferences specified in the authentication provider have precedence over any other settings. If no locale is specified in the authentication provider, the user preference settings are used, and for anonymous users the setting from the browser cookie is used.

• Run locale: The user product and content locale for a specific IBM Cognos BI session. IBM Cognos BI checks the run locale from the sources in the order listed: URL, user account object in the Content Store, account information in the authentication provider, language settings in the browser, and the server locale for the Content Manager computer.

Note: Did You Know?

IBM Cognos Go! Search is fully integrated with Cognos Workspace and no longer a separate product. Search is also fully integrated within Cognos Connection. If you have been using versions of Cognos BI V10 prior to Cognos BI V10.2, you should note that Cognos Workspace is legacy Business Insight and Cognos Workspace Advanced is Business Insight Advanced.

EXTENDIBILITY

You can further extend IBM Cognos BI and integrate it with MS Office by using IBM Cognos for Microsoft Office. You can also configure it to be used with mobile devices, by using IBM Cognos Mobile. If you have been an IBM Cognos 8 user, IBM Cognos Go! Search is now fully embedded within IBM Cognos BI.

DYNAMIC QUERY MODE

Dynamic Query Mode (DQM) is a part of performance enhancements in IBM Cognos BI v10.1. It is a new hybrid mode within the existing query service. This new query mode optimizes queries. It has security-aware and self-learning in-memory caching. It is designed to provide enhanced performance with complex heterogeneous data with 64-bit in-memory optimized query generation with pattern intelligence, in-memory calculations and aggregate operations, and security-aware 64-bit cache facilities with in-memory optimizations—hierarchies, members, facts, calculations, and prompts.

For further details on Dynamic Query Mode, refer to Chapter 13, “Maintaining Your IBM Cognos BI Application.”

IBM COGNOS SECURITY MODEL

IBM Cognos BI can be secured by using your existing infrastructure and can easily integrate with your enterprise authentication for single sign-on. IBM Cognos BI does not perform any user management by itself; instead, it leverages your existing authentication source, for example, LDAP, Active Directory, and so on, for authentication. The authentication providers supported may vary depending upon the version of Cognos BI you use. How much access a user has in IBM Cognos BI environment is managed by the authorization process, handled by IBM Cognos BI. Authorization can be configured for individual users or by making use of groups and roles.

You may choose to work with the default groups or roles, create your own user-defined groups or roles, or leverage those that are already defined in your authentication source. For example, users belonging to the System Administrators role in IBM Cognos BI are like superusers, whereas users belonging to the Consumer role can run reports, and those belonging to the Authors role can develop reports, and so on. For more information refer to the IBM Cognos BI Administration & Security Guide, or Chapter 12, “Securing IBM Cognos BI Environment and Its Objects.”

You can refer to Cognos product documentation using the following URL athttp://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/cogic/v1r0m0/index.jsp.

IBM COGNOS BI MULTITIERED ARCHITECTURE

IBM Cognos BI has a function-based three-tiered architecture: the web, application, and data tiers. Each of the tiers serves a specific function and can be separated by a firewall, as illustrated in Figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1. IBM Cognos BI—multitiered architecture.

The components communicate with each other using SOAP or HTTP protocol. IBM Cognos BI communicates with third-party applications using the BI BUS in tier 2, the application tier. The BI Bus is a SOAP API that supports WSDL.

Communication between application tier components occurs via a common dispatcher that works with the content manager component. The user interfaces sit on top of all the tiers.

The following sections look at each tier closely.

Tier 1: Web Server

The gateway passes the user requests from the browser to the dispatcher. The communication between the users and the IBM Cognos BI server is typically handled by the gateway.

In a single server install, you have one web server by default; however, you may use multiple web servers to enhance the performance or address specific needs of your IBM Cognos BI implementation. A single server or multiserver install requires the gateway to be configured to communicate with at least one dispatcher.

For a distributed install in which all three tier components do not sit on the same machine, the gateway must be configured to communicate with the dispatcher. In a single server install, the default value of localhost is used; however, it is recommended you change the configuration to use the host name instead. This is done with the IBM Cognos Configuration tool, as shown in Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2. Cognos Configuration for dispatcher URIs for gateway, in a distributed install.

IBM Cognos BI uses CGI as its default gateway and supports most gateways such as ISAPI for Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) web server and apache_mod gateway for Apache Web Server, or if your web server supports servlets, you can use servlets instead. For enhanced performance you might use any of the other supported gateways instead of CGI.

To implement failover in your IBM Cognos BI environment, you can configure multiple dispatchers that receive communication from the gateway. This way, if one dispatcher becomes unavailable, the other dispatchers continue to serve user requests. In the IBM Cognos Configuration tool, you can specify the order in which the dispatchers should be accessed. The one specified first in the list is accessed when the primary dispatcher fails. The gateway continues to monitor the primary dispatcher to check if it is back in service. Requests are routed back to the primary dispatcher when it reregisters itself.

Some of the other functions handled by the gateway follows:

• Encryption of passwords for security

• Attaching the default namespace information to the request to ensure the user is authenticated against the correct namespace

• Passing the user request to the IBM Cognos BI server for processing

• Attaching environment variables for the web server

Tier 2: Application Tier

Tier 2 (the application tier) consists of the IBM Cognos dispatcher, Content Manager, and application and platform services. You can install one or more instances of IBM Cognos application tier components on a single server or on multiple servers; use of multiple IBM Cognos servers can enhance the overall throughput and performance of your IBM Cognos BI implementation. IBM Cognos BI application tier components are responsible to process the requests received from the IBM Cognos gateway, for example, report, queries and analyses. In addition, the application tier renders the IBM Cognos Connection and Metric Studio interfaces.

Dispatcher is a Java™ servlet that takes the requests from the gateway and passes it to local services for execution; it is a multithreaded application component. The dispatcher is responsible to start all the IBM Cognos services and routes requests to other dispatchers enabled within the IBM Cognos deployment. It can also route the request to a specific dispatcher to run a request. This can be for load-balancing needs or to implement a package or user group requirements. For example, if each department data is on a separate computer, the requests for HR are routed to the dispatcher on the HR computer, finance requests are routed to the dispatcher on the Finance computer, and so on. This can be set up via the routing rules.

Each dispatcher on starting registers itself with the Content Manager. This way, all the dispatchers are aware of each other. When a dispatcher becomes unavailable, the requests are routed to the other available dispatchers until the unavailable dispatcher reregisters itself with the Content Manager.

Each dispatcher maintains its own local cache for requests that come from the Content Manager Cache Service. This decreases the load on the active content manager service. The cache is short-lived and is configurable using the Maximum Dispatcher Memory feature in IBM Cognos Administration.

IBM Cognos Services

The services available to the dispatcher depend on the IBM Cognos components installed on the computer. For example, the Metric Studio and PowerPlay® services are available if Metric Studio and PowerPlay have been installed on the computer, respectively. Each dispatcher has a set of associated services.

Table 2.1 outlines the list of services in IBM Cognos BI version v10.

Table 2.1. IBM Cognos v10 Services

Data Service is responsible to move data from source database(s) to the target database when you use Cognos Data Manager, the data movement tool used to populate data warehouse(s) and data mart(s).

Content Manager

Content Manager is responsible to store all IBM Cognos BI application data into the Content Store, for example, report output, report specifications, models, configuration data, security, personal user information, language information, schedules, export, import, and so on. A Java servlet is responsible to both store and retrieve information from the Content Store. Content Store is a database and typically belongs to tier 3 where the other query databases typically reside. The Content Manager connects to the Content Store by using the JDBC API.

Cognos Access Manager (CAM) is the security component of IBM Cognos BI and is part of the Content Manager. CAM is used to implement security capabilities including authentication, authorization, and encryption. Access Manager also leverages existing security providers you may have in your environment for use with IBM Cognos BI. In addition, it interacts with the certificate authority when it requires certificates to implement certain IBM Cognos BI security features.

You can have more than one Content Manager installed in your IBM Cognos BI environment to provide failover. There is only one Content Manager active at any time; the other Content Managers are in a standby mode. Additional Content Managers typically reside on a different computer. You specify the standby Content Managers in the IBM Cognos Configuration tool, as shown in Figure 2.3

Figure 2.3. Add standby Content Manager using IBM Cognos Configuration.

By default, the first Content Manager installed with IBM® Cognos® BI is the active one. An IBM Cognos BI server administrator can change the default Content Manager and the active Content Manager at any time.

Tier 3: Data Tier

In the data tier resides the Content Store, query databases, and metric stores, along with authentication sources and other reporting data sources.

Content Store

Content Store is a relational database that stores IBM Cognos BI data, for example, report specifications, packages, data sources, and so on. There is only one active Content Store at any time, so you must have the Content Store in a regular backup schedule, just like any other database in your environment. You can use any of the standard relational databases such as IBM DB2, Oracle, Sybase, or SQL Server for your Content Store.

When you first install a Cognos BI server, you can choose to use a default IBM Cognos content database to test your install; however, this is not mandatory. You may choose not to install the default Content Store and configure the database that you plan to use, for example, IBM Cognos DB2, Oracle, and so on after the install is complete.

Query Database

A query database refers to any data source that you use for reporting purpose in an IBM Cognos BI environment. IBM Cognos BI supports relational databases, files, dimensional cubes, and other physical data stores. In addition, you can use IBM Cognos View Manager (an Enterprise Information Integrator [EII]) to access data from data sources such as LDAP, WSDL, Open XML, and JDBC. It improves performance when querying from heterogeneous data sources and provides a unified view as a single virtual data source.

Metric Store

Metric store is required by IBM Cognos Metric Studio. You need a metric store database only if you plan to use Metric Studio in your IBM Cognos environment to implement scorecards. Metric store is a relational database that stores metric package contents, metric studio settings, and user preferences. Metric Designer also writes to the Metric Store with data retrieved from the query database.

You can have more than one Metric Store where each Metric Store can represent a scorecard application. For example, you can have one Metric Store for HR applications, another for marketing application, and so on. You must back up your Metric Sore using standard database backup procedures.

EXAMINE IBM COGNOS BI COMPONENTS AND STUDIOS

IBM Cognos BI provides capabilities to create, view, and administer reports, analyses, scorecards, dashboards, and events. You can access all these capabilities via a single web portal. There are web-based and windows-based components that enable you to create reports and models, respectively. The web-based components provide easy web-based user interfaces to access the various IBM Cognos core capabilities such as Cognos Workspace, Report Studio, Query Studio, Analysis Studio, and so on. Windows-based components can create the underlying metadata models, packages, extracts, and so on depending on the component used, for example, Framework Manager, Metric Designer, Cube Designer, and Transformer.

Figure 2.4 shows the web-based and windows-based components available. Reading the diagram bottom up, you see that windows-based components can connect to single or multiple data sources, as required. You can create your metadata model, extracts, and so on from these data sources. The models can then be used by report authors and developers to create reports, queries, analyses, and dashboards easily without needing to know the complexity of the data sources.

Figure 2.4. IBM Cognos BI web-based and windows-based components.

Also, the end result of the modeling process could be a Framework Manager package or Transformer cube depending on the modeling tool used. In either case it can be published to a common portal, IBM Cognos Connection. These can then be accessed by the web-based components such as Report Studio, Query Studio, Cognos Workspace, PowerPlay Studio, and so on to create reports, analyses, or dashboards.

All web-based components are available via IBM Cognos Connection, the Cognos portal. All or some components may be visible to you for use depending on your permissions. All web-based components are indicated in white boxes in Figure 2.4 and are available to you out-of-the box when you install an IBM Cognos BI server. The components in the gray box (that is, Metric Studio and PowerPlay Studio) need to be installed and configured after the IBM Cognos BI server is installed.

IBM Cognos Connection is not mandatory for you to use the Cognos interfaces; some customers elect to use their own custom portals to access Cognos interfaces. In that sense, IBM Cognos Connection is not considered a mandatory component.

Explore the IBM Cognos BI Windows Interface

The following sections look at the windows-based components first and highlight their functionality. As discussed earlier, a Cognos BI environment consists of some windows-based components, for example, Framework Manager and Metric Designer. Most of the windows-based components such as Framework Manager and Metric Designer are used by the Cognos development team to provide the underlying models or extracts used for report or scorecard development, respectively.

You can also use other windows-based components such as Cognos Insight in a stand-alone mode or integrate it with your Cognos BI environment to share your Cognos Insight dashboards and reports with others.

Windows-Based Components

Windows-based components are modeling tools such as Framework Manager, Transformer, Cube Designer, and Metric Designer. Each of these modeling tools can create packages/cubes/extracts that you publish to IBM Cognos Connection. After the package is published, the metadata is then available to the report developer and business users for report development and analyses.

Metric Designer enables you to create extracts and build scorecard applications to be used in Metric Studio.

You should install only those tools that you need in your IBM Cognos environment; it is not mandatory to have all the modeling tools. For example, you need Transformer only if you plan to build PowerPlay cubes to use with PowerPlay Studio or use PowerPlay cubes as a data source. You must carefully analyze your requirements and install those components that you require.

You can install the windows-based components on a separate computer or along with other windows-based server components. If your server components are in an environment other than Microsoft Windows, the modeling tools must be installed separately on a Windows computer. Sometimes, these modeling tools do not reside on any of the three tiers and require that you configure each one of them to communicate with the dispatcher either directly or through a dedicated gateway. It is common for developers to install these tools on their desktops. If firewall rules limit you from accessing the modeling tools, you can install them on any computer on the same architectural tier as Application Tier Components.

Work performed using the modeling tools is stored in flat files and not in the Content Store. You must proactively back up these files in project repositories for backup and recovery purposes. For example, you can configure IBM ClearCase®, CVS, and so on as your repository to back up these files.

IBM Cognos Framework Manager

Framework Manager is a metadata modeling tool for IBM Cognos BI content, which you can use to create a common business model that provides a consistent view to all the users.

Framework Manager enables you to model data from heterogeneous data sources and create a single view. In doing so, it hides the underlying data model complexity and other technical complexity from business users and report authors. From the enterprise data, metadata modelers can create a user-friendly view with a subset of data that provides a focused view of relevant data to report authors and business users. For example, a separate view for the Finance department, HR department, and so on. This enables the Finance department to easily find what it needs rather than weed through data for the entire organization.

Metadata modelers create packages in Framework Manager and publish them to the IBM Cognos Connection for report authors and business users to work with. For example, metadata modelers could create a Finance package for the Finance department, an HR package for HR department, and so on. These packages can be used by all the Studios, thus providing trusted information and a consistent view of data all across the enterprise. Creating packages with subsets of data from a common model or project is a good practice to ensure that the underlying rules built in the metadata model are same, thus providing consistent results.

Although it is common to apply data security at the database level, you can apply additional data level security using the Framework Manager tool, during the metadata modeling phase of the development cycle. For example, if a user belongs to the Finance department and should see only Finance department data, metadata modeler can apply a filter in Framework Manager to accomplish the same. Doing this enables you to use one single report to present data in the report based on user’s department, region, and so on. Based on your security requirement, you can restrict users from seeing certain portions of data or all the data, in the report. Metadata modelers can create security filters in Framework Manager that cater to your data-level security needs. For reports created for a global audience, you can use other values from the user’s locale to filter data.

For multilingual applications, the metadata model design must support the languages that your application requires. Because Framework Manager handles the metadata and not the data itself, the data must be available in the required languages in the database to support metadata modeling for multilingual application.

You can use Framework Manger to model SAP BW data, Online Analytic Processing (OLAP) data, and other supported data sources. OLAP data sources are used in Framework Manager to publish OLAP data to Cognos Connection for reporting purposes.

IBM Cognos BI v10.x provides the Model Design Accelerator, a graphical utility that both novice and experienced metadata modelers can use to build metadata models quickly.

The built-in Model Advisor provides guidance based on proven practices to help metadata modelers create robust models. Because the Model Advisor has the knowledge of the Query Engine’s functionality, it highlights the areas of the model that could cause confusion or generate unpredictable results.

Distributed teams can work on separate pieces of the model by working on their segment of the model and then bring it together for the enterprise model. Framework Manger is covered in detail in Chapter 11.

IBM Cognos Metric Designer

The Metric Designer is a modeling tool for Metric Studio. You can use it to create extracts for scorecard applications in Metric Studio. This tool extracts, maps, and transfers information into Metric Studio Metric Store from existing metadata sources like Impromptu Query definition files (.iqd) and Framework Manager.

IBM Cognos Transformer

Transformer is a modeling tool that you can use to create PowerCubes® with PowerPlay Studio. In a Transformer model, you can define the measures, numeric values such as count, total, and so on that you want to analyze in different ways (dimensions). For example, Region, Product type, or Time could be some of the dimensions by which you want to analyze the product sales.

Unlike Framework Manager, which is a metadata modeling tool that provides a middle layer on top of an existing data source, Transformer is a data modeling tool that can create its own OLAP data source as an end product.

PowerCubes enable dimensional analyses with drill up and drill down capability. You should plan to use PowerPlay Studio, when you need PowerCubes. You can use PowerCubes in IBM Cognos PowerPlay Studio or as a data source to create IBM Cognos BI reports.

IBM Cognos Cube Designer

Cube Designer is a modeling tool used to build dynamic cubes introduced in Cognos BI V10.2. It provides enhanced performance when working with large data warehouses, with terabytes of data. You can benefit from using the dynamic cube as a data source when working in Dynamic Query Mode. It uses a star or snowflake schema to create dynamic cubes. These cubes can be an integration of aggregate fact tables in the base cube or two cubes merged into a single virtual cube. It has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface. After you create the cube in Cube Designer, you can publish it to the IBM Cognos Connection portal for reporting purposes.

IBM Cognos BI for Microsoft Office

IBM Cognos BI for Microsoft Office enables users to access IBM Cognos BI data from within Microsoft Office applications. It uses Microsoft .NET framework to enable users to communicate with server-based components.

There are two types of clients provided by IBM Cognos BI for Microsoft Office: smart client and COM add-in client. The smart client provides a zero-administration client with a zero-deployment impact. In addition, product updates are automatically captured through the smart client. For the COM add-in client, which requires a client installation, product updates are delivered by uninstalling and reinstalling the COM add-in client.

Map Manager

Map Manager is a Microsoft Windows utility used to import maps and update labels for maps in IBM Cognos Report Studio. It enables modelers and administrators to define alias names to match your data and alternative names for multilingual versions of text that must appear on the map.

Cognos Insight

Cognos Insight is a desktop application with an in-memory OLAP engine. It is an analysis tool that empowers business users and decision makers to use their personal, survey, or benchmark data from Excel files to build dashboards and reports. Users can simply drag and drop the complete file or selected data values from the file and combine it with other data files to build reports. In addition, you can enhance your dashboard or report with calculations and filters, if required.

You can use Cognos Insight independently on your desktop or integrate it with your Cognos BI environment and share your dashboards and reports with others by publishing it to the Cognos Connection.

The following file types are supported:

• Microsoft Excel file (worksheet, rows, and columns)

• Delimited text file

• Report data from a simple tabular list that was created in IBM Cognos Business Intelligence (that does not contain unresolved prompts)

• Cognos TM1 cube view

• Cognos TM1 dimension subset

Explore the IBM Cognos BI Web Components

After the metadata model is available, users can create reports, analysis, dashboards, and so on. IBM Cognos Administrator can enable or restrict access to these packages, based on your security requirements. For example, HR data with sensitive information may not be made available to users outside of the HR department.

IBM Cognos Connection

IBM Cognos Connection is the single point entry to corporate data. It hosts all the IBM Cognos BI Studios, which you can use to create queries, analyses, and reports. It does not require you to install any plug-ins, ActiveX®, or Java. For more information refer to Chapter 3, “Explore IBM Cognos Connection.”

IBM Cognos Viewer

Cognos viewer is used to view output of HTML reports run from IBM Cognos Connection.

IBM Cognos Query Studio

Query Studio is a core capability of IBM Cognos BI. It is an ad-hoc reporting tool used to create reports that do not require complex formatting or rules. It provides easy drag-and-drop capability for business users with little or no training. The queries and report templates created in Query Studio can be saved for later use. It is suited for business users who need to get answers to focused questions quickly. Query Studio reports always work with the latest version of data available in the database. It provides basic reporting capabilities such as filters, aggregation, summary options, ranking, conditional formatting, and so on.

You can open a Query Studio report in Report Studio. It is recommended that you make a copy of your Query Studio report prior to opening and saving it in Report Studio. Query Studio reports when modified in Report Studio cannot be edited in Query Studio again.

IBM Cognos Analysis Studio

Analysis Studio is a core capability of IBM Cognos BI, which you can access via IBM Cognos Connection. It is a data exploration tool that enables business users to perform analyses, discover trends, uncover risks, and identify opportunities. It works with dimensionally modeled data and enables users to drill up and down to analyze high-level summaries and then understand the underlying detailed information. Users can easily apply filters and compare and identify trends in data. You can open an Analysis Studio analysis in Report Studio to enhance the report with advanced reporting capabilities available in Report Studio.

It is recommended that you make a copy of an Analysis Studio analysis prior to modifying it in Report Studio. After the analysis is modified in Report Studio, it becomes a Report Studio report and can no longer be accessed using Analysis Studio.

IBM Cognos Report Studio

Report Studio is a core capability of IBM Cognos BI and can be accessed via IBM Cognos Connection. Unlike Query Studio and Analysis Studio that are end-user components, Report Studio is designed for professional report developers to create sophisticated reports for a larger audience. It is an advanced report development tool that provides complex and sophisticated report building capabilities such as dashboards, charts, conditional highlighting, calculations, filters, multiple queries, joins, set operations, customizable prompts, briefing books, and more. It has a powerful new charting engine that provides enhanced charting capabilities.

If you have been using earlier versions of Cognos, you may note that the legacy charts that were created using IBM Cognos 8 can be used as-is or enhanced using the new charting engine in IBM Cognos BI V10.

IBM Cognos Event Studio

Event Studio is a core capability of IBM Cognos BI that you can access via IBM Cognos Connection. Typically, it is used to notify users on performance-related events. You can set up agents in Event Studio to monitor data and tasks that meet certain business conditions. When these conditions occur, Event Studio alerts users so that they can take appropriate action. You can use agents to monitor the status of events, run and distribute reports based on certain events, publish information to the portal, or deliver alerts by mail.

IBM Cognos Metric Studio

Metric Studio creates scorecard applications that organizations can use to manage and monitor their key performance metrics. Scorecards are a powerful and an easy way to monitor and analyze performance metrics at different levels of organizations as well as at the enterprise level. It enables you to work with impact diagrams to analyze the impact of a metric on other metrics, create strategy maps, and more. You can associate reports with metrics to provide additional details on metrics on the scorecard. Metric Studio integrates easily with IBM Cognos BI. After you install your IBM Cognos BI software, you must then install Metric Studio and configure them to work together. You can access Metric Studio via IBM Cognos Connection just like any other studio in IBM Cognos BI.

IBM Cognos Workspace

Cognos Workspace, also referred to as Business Insight in earlier versions of Cognos BI v10, is a core capability of IBM Cognos BI, which you can access via IBM Cognos Connection. It is a powerful self-service data exploration tool that enables you to create interactive reports and dashboards. With a powerful charting engine, it enables you to create the charts and change the chart type on-the-fly. You can work with data from different data sources such as IBM Cognos BI content (reports, report parts, URLs, folders, PowerPlay reports, and prompts), IBM Cognos TM1 websheets, IBM Cognos TM1 Cube Views, Contributor, external data (wizard-driven), IBM Cognos Metric Studio content (scorecards, strategies, metric types, individual metrics, and watch lists), and more all in one single report. You can easily create reports and dashboards in Cognos Workspace that enable you to monitor your data in real time and do what-if analysis by bringing in data from TM1 websheets. You can create your own filters, drill up and down to further explore the data, sort, and share with others and distribute your dashboards along with adding comments to your reports for others to view. You can also export content to .pdf, .csv, .xml, and Excel.

If you are currently using IBM Go! Dashboard and upgrading to IBM Cognos BI v10.x, you can easily bring the dashboards created in IBM Go! Dashboard into Cognos Workspace and reuse as-is.

IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced

Cognos Workspace Advanced, also referred to as Business Insight Advanced in earlier versions of Cognos BI v10, is a core capability of IBM Cognos BI that you can access via IBM Cognos Connection. It is an easy-to-use tool for ad-hoc querying and analyses. It provides reporting and analyses capabilities such as grouping, sorting, summarizing, and so on. You can drill up and down when working with dimensional data. It enables you to apply filters, summarize, sort, perform calculation, create charts, apply conditional formatting, define headers, footers, and more. It provides you options to see the data in the report immediately; unlike in design mode you do not see the data until the report is run. Business users see the data in the report as they assemble, without waiting to run the report every time they add a new item to it.

You can leverage reports created in Cognos Workspace Advanced in Report Studio and enhance it further with advanced reporting capabilities available in Report Studio. Reports created in Report Studio can also be consumed and edited in Cognos Workspace Advanced. In addition, when working with Cognos Workspace, you can transition your work into Cognos Workspace Advanced via the Do More option.

Business users can see how the set operators, for example, Union, and more, were used to generate a data set in a query definition to understand the information on the report. For example, for a query that generates the top five salesperson lists, you can see how the query was created to generate that data set.

IBM Cognos PowerPlay Studio

IBM Cognos PowerPlay Studio can be accessed via IBM Cognos Connection. It is used to create and view reports based on PowerCube data sources. It enables you to analyze your data using commonly used data exploration techniques such as drill up, drill down, nest categories, filter data, create subsets with Top and Bottom categories, create calculations, show/hide totals, drill-through to another report or a package that contains PowerCube from PowerPlay Studio, and more.

PowerPlay Studio requires separate install after you install the IBM Cognos BI server.

IBM Cognos BI Web Component Summary

Table 2.2 summarizes the functionality of the IBM Cognos BI web components.

Table 2.2. IBM Cognos BI Web Components

IBM Cognos Administration

IBM Cognos Administration is a web interface that enables you to administer your IBM Cognos BI environment. You can access IBM Cognos Administration via IBM Cognos Connection. This option is only available to you in IBM Cognos Connection if you have administrative privileges in an IBM Cognos BI environment. IBM Cognos Administration enables you to accomplish the following tasks: monitor server status, system metrics, monitor activities, change some system settings, create groups and roles to secure your IBM Cognos BI environment, set user interface profiles, configure capabilities, set up data source connections, export and import IBM Cognos content for deployment, create distribution lists, create contact lists, set up printers, manage portlets, set styles, and start and stop dispatchers.

IBM Cognos BI v10.x provides enhanced system management options such as intraday scheduling, automatic credential renewal by storing it as part of user’s profile, enhanced monitoring and administration by enabling you to suspend activities by date or indefinitely, enables suspension of activities based on process ids, and can trace activities of specific user by IPF logs.

ADDITIONAL NEW FEATURES AND ENHANCEMENTS IN IBM COGNOS BI V10

This section highlights the new features of Cognos BI and enhancements made to some of the existing functionalities. It is designed to serve as a helpful guide that enables you to become familiar with the new features and functionality. If your role is that of a BI architect, business analyst or a business user, it can give you enough information to plan, design, or enhance your Cognos BI solution using these features without delving into all the technical details.

IBM Cognos Active Report

IBM Cognos Active Report is a new capability in Cognos BI v10. Active Reports are self-contained interactive reports that enable executives, business managers, and front-line workers to continue to perform analyses, disconnected from the BI servers. Ease of use and fast performance in a disconnected mode make this a powerful tool for the sales team and other business users who are usually on-the-go and not connected to the BI infrastructure. These reports can contain options to sort, filter, and other controls that provide a high level of interactivity. All the prerendered charts and data is contained in the report, resulting in high performance. Authors must carefully design and test these reports because they can become large. You can control the maximum number of query rows to optimize performance via properties of an Active Report.

You can schedule and burst Active Report. You can also set up drill-through options to view details when connected to the BI server. Active Reports are authored in Report Studio using the new template or you can convert an existing non-active report to an Active Report using ‘Convert to Active Report’ option in Report Studio, on the File menu. After the report is converted to Active Report, you can now add controls for interactive behavior. Active Report template has several control options for layout control such as the Tab control, which enables you to group similar report items together; Deck of Cards, which is used to create layers of report items; and Hide or Show List Columns using check boxes. You can also specify filtering and sorting options via the list and drop-down list control, radio buttons, check boxes, toggle buttons, push buttons, and interaction with charts that drive data. These controls can be data-driven or static choices that the author defines. You can also add interactive behavior to data containers such as list and crosstabs. You define the connections between these controls, which creates variables that pass information from one control to another.

Active Reports are .mht files with similar behavior like a .pdf for email and distribution. Security can be set on the report object in IBM Cognos Connection; however, the file is not secured.

Internet Explorer® can run the .mht files directly while Firefox users require an add-in like UnMHT.

IBM Cognos Analysis for Microsoft Excel

IBM Cognos Analysis for Microsoft Excel provides easy drag-and-drop and formula-based capabilities so that you can analyze and explore trusted BI data in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. This capability is available in versions prior to Cognos BI v10.

IBM Cognos Collaboration

IBM Cognos Collaboration provides capabilities that enable team decision making within IBM Cognos BI by connecting people to information and processes. BI applications, through their various capabilities, enable business users to identify issues, risks, and opportunities. However, after this information is in the hands of business users and they need to act upon it, there usually isn’t an easy way to bring people together to either get consensus or get everyone involved for valuable insight. IBM Cognos Collaboration addresses this exact issue and makes the team decision making process easy. It eliminates knowledge silos, reduces the time spent on collecting information, introduces accountability to the decision-making process, and helps you to take action based on your findings and decisions. Integration of Lotus Connections with IBM Cognos BI makes this easily possible because it leverages the fact-based BI information from IBM Cognos BI and presents it to a group or team for discussions by enabling users to leverage the social utility tools from Lotus Connections such as discussions, wikis, and blogs. Lotus Connections, being Social software for business, empowers its users to remain in contact with their networks and quickly respond to business opportunities. All the discussions, decisions, BI evidence, other attachments, and tasks assignments are stored in a central repository database that is searchable corporate memory for the organization.

In an integrated IBM Cognos BI environment with Lotus Connections, users can access Lotus Connections directly from Cognos Workspace. There are multiple levels of collaboration users can leverage.

One way is to use annotations and comments. In Cognos Workspace, users can annotate at report level, as well as cell level. Each user’s annotations are available as a trail for those coming in later in the discussions to see and catch up.

Another option available is to create activities in Cognos Workspace. You can create an activity in Cognos Workspace and assign it a start date and assign it to a person or a group. When you assign an activity to a group, any person in the group can take ownership and escalate as required. This addresses issues of a task being held up when assigned to a person who is on vacation.

The third way is to create and manage events. You can set up watch rules based on a certain report condition. When the condition is met, notification (perhaps for approvals or assignments) is sent to the users. You can assign owners and stakeholders, and also request to be notified when action is taken or not taken within a certain period of time. This provides accountability to the process from start to completion. All notifications are received in the users’ My Inbox in IBM Cognos Connection. This enables users to take action without leaving their IBM Cognos BI environment.

IBM Cognos Mashup Service

IBM Cognos Mashup Service can combine different applications into a single user interface that meets the needs of individual users. You can use IBM Cognos Mashup Service to expose IBM Cognos BI content such as reports, metrics, analysis, and more in your other business applications that users are most familiar with. These are exposed as a web service; every time a Cognos report, metric, analysis, or query is saved, a web service is created.

This reduces the time taken to write code to create sophisticated reports with prompts, conditional formatting, and drill function, which can otherwise be easily leveraged from your IBM Cognos BI environment. Not only can you leverage the reports, you also leverage the associated security on the content, as defined in IBM Cognos BI.

You must first obtain the Web Service URL for the content to be included. Then from the URL specify all or parts of the content required within the URL, as well as the required output format such as XML, HTML or JSON. When you have this information, you can integrate the Web Service URL into the third-party application.

You can use industry-standard REST or SOAP protocols from your applications to make requests to the IBM Cognos Mashup Service. Web 2.0 environments, .NET, and other third-party SOAP toolkits work well with the IBM Cognos Mashup Service.

IBM Cognos Mobile

IBM Cognos Mobile enables IBM Cognos BI content such as reports, analysis, and dashboards to be consumed on mobile devices such as iPhones, iPads, BlackBerries, Windows Mobile, and Symbian. The reports are authored only once and can also be consumed on mobile devices. Cognos Mobile has a zero footprint for web applications on the iPhone and iPad. It enables mobile users to get trusted information in a timely manner on their mobile devices so that they can make better decisions. Mobile users can view and interact with the reports, analysis, and dashboards in a secure environment. Most commonly used functions are available on a touch screen such as Welcome, Favorites, Recently Run Reports, and Search. Data is compressed before transfer and also before saving, thus giving an enhanced performance. You can drill up and drill down while performing data analysis, as well as drill through to another report for additional information.

Although it leverages the existing IBM Cognos security, it also applies additional security required for mobile devices and company’s existing mobile infrastructure. Security measures include loss and theft as well as unauthorized access to wireless network; this is true for both connected and disconnected modes. IBM Cognos Mobile security features include standard Cognos data encryption, lease key technology, device user authentication policies, device-based mobile encryption database, standard Cognos authentication, standard device-specific secure data transmission and encryption, remote device wiping, remote locking function for device database, and device-based password protection.

Administration of IBM Cognos BI is centralized with IT, which can also install IBM Cognos mobile remotely. Administrators can also schedule reports to be delivered to your mobile device at regular intervals, burst a report where users gets data specific for their department or region only, or define events that trigger a report to run and be delivered to your device when a certain business condition is met.

If you use Cognos BI v10.2, you can restrict access to Cognos Mobile using the new Mobile Secured function. This function enables only those Mobile users to access Cognos content who have been granted access to this secured function. A new predefined role, mobile users, has been added to Cognos namespace to set up access permissions on this secured function.

Legacy IBM Cognos users must know that IBM Cognos Mobile is the new name for Cognos Go! Mobile.

IBM Cognos Real-Time Monitoring

IBM Cognos Real-Time Monitoring software enables you to monitor your business continuously with up-to-date data via rich operational dashboards. It enables you to monitor and take immediate decisive corrective action to support operations in real time. This is possible because it provides “in-flight” data streams with 64-bit patented in-memory Streaming Data Store Technology. The RTM engine listens for changes and exceptions in data and receives it as a continuous stream of data. This information is loaded into the memory within milliseconds and makes it available for display. You can perform real-time monitoring of metrics from disparate data sources with capabilities such as drill down to identify root causes, author your report by simple drag-and-drop capability, and define alerts to notify relevant people when certain business conditions occur.

You can view Real-Time Monitoring dashboards in Cognos Workspace and IBM Cognos BI v10.x reports. When you integrate Real-Time Monitoring and IBM Cognos BI, you can set up single sign-on and leverage via a shared LDAP, the security information, users, and roles. In addition, Framework Manager can use native Real-Time Monitoring cubes as a data source. When required you can persist the Real-Time Monitoring data in a data store to enable IBM Cognos BI v10.x reporting.

This technology is popular in environments that monitor fraudulent banking transactions, call centers to monitor service-level agreements (SLA), and so on.

Legacy IBM Cognos users must know that IBM Cognos Real-Time Monitoring is the new name for Cognos Now!

IBM Cognos Statistics

IBM Cognos Statistics is a wizard-driven tool for report authors. It provides a subset of statistical functions available in SPSS statistics. You can use Cognos Statistics to provide statistical output of a sample of your trusted BI data and distribute it to a large audience. You must understand IBM Cognos Statistics provides statistical output rather than statistical analysis and is designed for report authors rather than statisticians.

To access Cognos Statistics you must install IBM Cognos Statistics after you have successfully installed your IBM Cognos BI server. After IBM Cognos Statistics is configured to be used with the IBM Cognos BI server, the Statistics option will be available for use to report authors in Report Studio.

BI analysis highlights data that meets the business needs as well as data that does not; however, it does not indicate whether that deviation is statistically important or has a significant impact on the business. This is where IBM Cognos Statistical reports can especially be helpful.

The three major capabilities are statistical process control, data analysis and testing, and insight into the distribution and shape of data.

You can use control charts to improve operational quality and cost control by finding out when the product quality is best and when it is compromised and then take the appropriate action.

Using data analysis and testing, you can identify market trends and buying patterns via regression and correlation analysis.

Histogram, Boxplot, and descriptive tables provide insight into the distribution and shape of data, which you can use to identify statistics such as key customer demographics that impact increased sales.

You can create your Framework Manager models from SPSS models and then create reports, dashboards, and more for business users using the package from Framework Manager. Within Report Studio are wizard-driven charts that you can create for the different statistical functions available in IBM Cognos Statistics.

IBM Cognos for Microsoft Office

You can use IBM Cognos for Microsoft Office to present BI information to users who use Microsoft Office applications a lot for their day-to-day activities. IBM Cognos for Microsoft Office is a good way to present BI to this community of users. It enables business users to work with IBM Cognos BI content in Microsoft Excel, Word®, or PowerPoint®. You can import your IBM Cognos BI content in PowerPoint or Word for presentations. This ensures that everyone works with the same centrally managed data.

You can log in to IBM Cognos BI from Excel, PowerPoint, or Word and import IBM Cognos BI content such as reports and data. You can then work with the imported data by applying calculations or macros in your usual way. When the IBM Cognos BI data is updated, the related Microsoft Office files are automatically updated. You can refresh your Microsoft Office documents as often as required with the IBM Cognos BI content.

IT continues to be responsible for all version control, access control, and so on through the IBM Cognos BI environment. It does not require any desktop administration because everything is managed centrally via the .NET technology and Microsoft Smart Client technology.

External Data

External Data is a wizard-driven tool that enables you to combine data from your spreadsheet and other external files with corporate data, provided you have been granted permission by your IBM Cognos BI Administrator. You can launch the External Data Wizard from Cognos Workspace Advanced or Report Studio. With this ability, you do not need to wait for IT to create the data in the BI environment before you can use it for reporting. You can use external files to filter a result set, for example, customer list, product list, and regions or use benchmark data to combine with corporate data. You can combine the data from your external file and trusted corporate data for reporting or to publish it as a package that you can use to create new reports or share with others. This data does not become part of the Content Store; it continues to exist as an external file. The data is cached in memory. If the data in your file changes, you must refresh the cache for the updated data.

After you import your external file into IBM Cognos BI, you can use it as a data source in Cognos Workspace and Report Studio to create new IBM Cognos BI content.

For you to successfully use your external file with other IBM Cognos BI content, you must ensure that you can uniquely link at least one column in both, and they have the same format. If the file is to be shared by multiple users, you can store it in a shared location; otherwise, when users try to work with the package that has an external data file, they will be prompted for the file location when the package is first accessed.

You can limit the size of the external file by limiting the number of rows allowed via governor settings in Framework Manager.

Content Archival

Cognos BI V10.1.1 or later enables you to use the Content Archival feature to archive saved report outputs to external repositories such as FileNet® Content Manager. This feature is especially useful if your BI environment is required to adhere to regulatory compliance. The archived content can be viewed and searched from IBM Cognos Connection.

IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes

IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes is a new feature available in Cognos BI V10.2 that provides a multidimensional view of the relational data warehouse by adding an in-memory relational OLAP (ROLAP) component to the dynamic query server, thus resulting in enhanced performance. The performance gain is a result of using database for scalability, optimized SQL, caching and optimized pre-aggregates, and summaries both in-memory and in-database. The performance gain is true even when working with more than terabytes of data in the data warehouse. Cognos Dynamic cubes is a way to use a multidimensional data source for performance gain in a dynamic query mode.

Multiple Tenant Environments

Multiple Tenant Environment is a new feature introduced in Cognos BI v10.2. This enables multitenancy capabilities in your IBM Cognos BI environment and helps reduce the cost associated with such implementations. This capability enables you to support multiple customers (tenants) in a single deployment of the BI application. In such an environment tenants can work only with the data they are authorized to use.

PLATFORM ENHANCEMENTS

This section introduces you to the tools that have been introduced in Cognos BI v10 or have been enhanced with new features. These components are stand-alone and must be configured after your IBM Cognos BI server is successfully installed and running.

IBM Cognos Lifecycle Manager

IBM Cognos Lifecycle Manager is a stand-alone utility that helps you with the upgrade of your reports from IBM Cognos 8.x to IBM Cognos BI v10. Using LifeCycle Manager enables you to upgrade your content in phases rather than with an all or none approach. The phased upgrade enables your user community to continue to use the reports in the old environment while you upgrade the reports to IBM Cognos BI v10. LifeCycle Manager can compare reports using all supported languages and output format.

It provides you a streamlined wizard-driven workflow of logical tasks that must be performed. The user interface organizes the upgrade by project tasks in this sequence: Source Validation, Source Execution, Target Validation, Target Execution, Comparison, and Task Summary. You can identify which reports you want to upgrade in phase 1 of your upgrade process; then you can identify them to be in scope or out of scope. Only those that are in scope will be upgraded to IBM Cognos BI v10.1. The upgrade process also enables you to monitor your upgrade project to see how many reports were upgraded successfully and how many were rejected. As you go through the validation process between the two environments, you can approve or reject reports that show a difference and add comments on why they are rejected for future reference.

You can use Lifecycle Manager to upgrade Report Studio report, Query Studio query, or Analysis Studio analysis.

LifeCycle Manager enables you to archive your project and use it for benchmark later. You can create benchmark projects to compare reports from a single environment and compare snapshots against a baseline, after a fresh install, new database version, and so on. Not only can you compare your pdf report outputs, you can also compare HTML, XML, CSV, Microsoft Excel 2002/2007, and Microsoft Excel 2000 Single Sheet format.

IBM Cognos Data Manager

Included in IBM Cognos BI, Data Manager enables you to create data warehouse and data repositories for reporting. It is used for data integration purposes. IBM Cognos Data Manager can be used to extract data from multiple operational data source and data files, apply business rules on the data to transform it to fulfill enterprise reporting needs, and deliver the transformed data to conformed data marts or other reporting tables.

Data Manager integrates with other IBM Cognos BI products and delivers metadata to Framework Manager.

IBM Cognos Virtual View Manager

IBM Cognos Virtual View Manager can provide access to data sources such as LDAP, Java Database Connectivity (JDBC), Open XML, and WSDL. It also improves performance when querying data from different data sources and provides a unified view as a single virtual data source.

Integration with SharePoint 2010

Cognos BI v10.1.1 and later enable easy integration with SharePoint® 2010 via deployment of Cognos web parts. In addition, with SharePoint 2010 you can publish Cognos reports to document libraries as well as attach discussion threads to Cognos content.

GLOBALIZATION: MULTILANGUAGE SUPPORT

It is common for organizations to do business across continents and work together with people who speak different languages, use different date/time formats, and use different currency, and so on. IBM Cognos BI is designed to address the needs of a global market. You can author your reports once and see it in different languages as well as access the underlying data in different languages; you can even change the language of the IBM Cognos user interface to suit the needs of your audience. For a complete list of languages supported, refer to IBM Cognos Architecture and Deployment Guide, or go to http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/cogic/v1r0m0/index.jsp.

IBM Cognos BI supports both Unicode and non-Unicode data sources.

When implementing an IBM Cognos BI solution for a global market, you may want to take the following into consideration:

• All strings or text that appear in IBM Cognos user interface is translated to the required language.

• Required fonts are added to your IBM Cognos BI environment.

• Customize language support for user interface.

• Ensure users see the report, data, and metadata in their preferred language.

• Customize currency, date, time, and numbers for your audience.

• Configure your database to ensure it can support multilingual reporting.

Cognos BI V10.2 has added support for BiDi (bidirectional languages such as Arabic and Hebrew) as well as Supplementary Asian characters.

IN A NUTSHELL: REVIEWING BY IBM COGNOS BI AUDIENCE

Depending on your role on an IBM Cognos BI project implementation, you may be interested to know those aspects that relate to you. Now review IBM Cognos BI components by role at a high level.

Architect Perspective

Architects should pay close attention to the installation options and supported software, especially when IBM Cognos BI needs to integrate with other software or applications. There are several factors that come into play and if not addressed in the early phases of the project may become project risks. Some of the key questions that you may want answered early follow:

• Will IBM Cognos BI integrate with other business applications? What integrations options are available and best-suited for this environment?

• Is there anything from existing infrastructure that will be leveraged?

• How many users can access the system at any time? Is the proposed solution scalable?

• Which installation option is best for this solution? Is failover required? Is a clustered install required?

• What versions of software are used? Are those versions compatible and supported by the product?

• Are all data sources in house? Are there any special requirements for data access?

• Which capability is best-suited for different IBM Cognos users? Will they all use Cognos Workspace or will some need access to other capabilities such as Cognos Workspace Advanced or Report Studio reports?

• Does the choice of capability impact license requirement or the existing licenses satisfy all the needs?

• Are there any training needs?

Project Manager Perspective

Project Managers are interested in knowing what the IBM Cognos BI related tasks are, resources required to implement the solution, and what phase does this belong to. Here are some points to consider:

• Do you have resources with required IBM Cognos BI skills for the IBM Cognos BI capabilities that will be used on the project? IBM Cognos 10 has many offerings; ensure that the identified resources have skills to build the proposed solution. If the project requires capabilities such as Report Studio, Framework Manager, Metric Studio, Metric Designer, and Active Reports, the identified resource has experience to deliver the same.

• Are all the required license expenses covered? Does additional scope require an IBM Cognos BI capability that impacts license requirements?

• Is the infrastructure in place prior to the project start? Who is responsible for the install of IBM Cognos software? If you do not have resources with skills to install, you can leverage IBM Global Business Services.

• Depending on the complexity of the project, you may define an initial roll-out or pilot project requirements to implement in phases.

• If additional tools or components are required, consider which tools are available immediately and which ones can be phased over time.

• Are the training needs covered and budgeted for?

• Cognos Solution Implementation Methodology is a Cognos-specific project methodology that you can use to create your project plan (discussed in Chapter 14, “Manage IBM Cognos Project: An Overview”).

Business Analyst Perspective

Business Analysts should carefully study the IBM Cognos BI components section and understand the various capabilities. There should be a clear mapping between the requirements and IBM Cognos BI Capability that will be used to build the solution. It is worth noting that you can choose from the many reporting options available within IBM Cognos BI; however, one may be better suited to a certain audience than another. For example, although some users may benefit more from Report Studio reports, others may be empowered by Cognos Workspace. It is recommended that you work with the technical team to map requirements and capabilities. Your understanding of the components and requirements can help you prepare relevant questions for your stakeholder interviews during requirement gathering sessions.

Some of the key considerations follow:

• Who is the audience of the reports? Do they need packaged reports; if yes which capability is best suited for them? Are these users more independent and require self-service capabilities?

• Does the data for reporting come from the same data source? If not, what are the other data sources? What is the difference? Is there a requirement for users to work with external data from their Excel file? Who are these users? The external file usage can be leveraged only if users are especially given access to this capability.

• Is there a requirement for collaboration and accountability?

• Are there situations in which the business users need to be alerted via emails?

• Is there any report or dashboard with Real-Time Monitoring needs?

• Is the solution being developed for a global audience? Will it be used in different languages, currency, and more?

Developer Perspective

Developers must thoroughly understand the proposed solution prior to building it. It is worth finding out if there is a requirement and capability mapping document. This should tell you the decisions made regarding the IBM Cognos capability that has the functionality you must leverage to build the solution. Because there are usually several ways to implement a solution, you must give careful thought to the best way to implement your solution. Take into account the best practices, refer to the IBM Cognos BI proven practices, and choose the best route. You should give careful consideration to some of the points highlighted here:

• Is the software available to build the proposed solution? Do you have the required privilege/permissions to use the resources to build the solution?

• Does the tool enable you to create templates? Should you design a template with standard headers, footers, and logos that the team can leverage? Will it help you with maintenance?

• Do you need to take into considerations scheduling, bursting, or distribution of reports? Is the requirement known to you? Does the capability support the requirement?

• Are the reports being developed for a global audience? Who are they?

• What is the nature of the underlying database? Is it transactional or data warehouse? Is the data source in the supported data sources list for Cognos BI version being used? If not, what are the options you need to consider? Does this impact the project timeline considerably?

End-User Perspective

End Users must know the scope of the project. If the solution is built in phases, the scope of each phase must be clearly understood and validated.

Some of the facts you must have as you get ready to use the IBM Cognos BI solution that has been built for you follow:

• Are you ready to work with the solution being built or do you need training? Training needs must be identified and communicated.

• Is this IBM Cognos BI solution providing as-is features of your legacy reporting system or is it an enhancement?

• Do you have a requirement to set up watch rules on items you want to watch closely when exceptions occur?

• Should the report be a packaged report or self-service? Will the information be best consumed as a dashboard, a scorecard, or a chart?

• Are there reports that you can schedule to run later?

• Does the report output need to be .pdf, .html, .csv, or in Excel or all?

IBM Cognos BI Administrator Perspective

IBM Cognos BI Administrators must have a clear understanding of the requirements of their audience. How the infrastructure is set up can contribute to the system performance and availability.

Some of the key things to help you could be:

• Is there a requirement for the system to be available 24x7? If not, what are the scheduled maintenance periods?

• Is there a need for load balancing? What is it?

• Is there a requirement to handle failover? What is it?

• Are all the capabilities identified in the requirement and is the mapping document installed and available?

• Do the identified data sources exist? Are they accessible? Do you have the userids you require?

• What are the hardware and software requirements? Are the software to be used in the list of supported versions of Cognos BI?

• What are the security and encryption requirements?

• How many environments will you be supporting, for example, development, test, UAT, and production? How do you plan to manage deployments between these environments? Will the user permissions in each environment be same or different? You must work closely with the project manager to create tasks for each environment because depending on the complexity may have a significant impact on project timeline.