COGNOS

Interview Questions

2008-05-04T06:59:00.000-07:00

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What is Defect/Bug/Error Life Cycle?

Defect--During requirement phase if we find its called as defect.A defect in requirement.

Bug-----During testing phase if we find its called a BUG.

Error Life Cycle-

1)Open

2)assigned(assigned to dev)

3)Dev-passed(after fixing)

4)Under testing(when testing team receives the fix)

5) Closed (if working fine) else reopen

Defect is the issue caught while Testing, When the as said is accepted by the developers then the as said is called as a Bug;Error always occurs in the coding during Unit Testing by the development team.

(isues regarding the coding are said Error's)

A Mistake in coding is called an ERROR. This mistake detected by test engineer during testing called defect(or) issue. This defect (or)issue accepted by defect tracking team as code related defect called BUG.

When we found a defect /Bug we will set the status New and set the severity and then assign to the junior senior people based on the severity they will set the priority and then they will assign to corresponding developer based on the severity dev fix it. And again tester again re-tested he will fix correctly close the bug, otherwise then again re assign to the corresponding dev.

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Interview Questions

2008-05-04T06:49:00.000-07:00

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Q) How to select multiple values from Type-in prompt?

Example - I want to enter into type-in prompt in 'Product name--- Liza' display report data in 'product name is Leza' only OR I want to enter into type-in prompt in 'All', that time display report data in all are report data.

Q) How is possible this Scenario using in type-in prompt.?

Here we can enter one value, here it can't shows lovs. In catalog colomns we can select the value for which we can insert the pick list.

Can you be more specific abut this. What i understand from the question, you have a prompt page with a text box prompt and the user types the value. When the user types the product name '

Ex: laptop' and clicks 'finish' the report page has to display all the records relevent to laptop. When the user types 'All' in the text box prompt and clicks 'Finish' the report has to display all the products.

BY USING STRING VARIABLE WE CAN SELECT(OR)ENTER MULTIPLE VALUES By using the following condition as the filter for the textbox prompt we can get the data for the specified product as well as All products when we type ALL in textbox prompt

Product name = ?P_ProductName? or 'ALL' in (?P_ProductName?)

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Interview Questions

2008-05-04T06:32:00.000-07:00

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Q) What r the migration tools available in the market with respect to cognos such as impromptu reports are migrated to cognos reportnet?

A) Reportnet1.1 migration tool is available to migrate the impromptu report to reportnet.

Q) Can reportnet supports cubes?

A) No

Q) What are versions of cognos from starting release to latest in the market?

A) Cognos EP7 series,Cognos reportnet1.1 Mr1,MR2,MR3,MR4,cognos8.0,8.1, 8.2,8.3

Q) What is IQD?What is contained in IQD? How you create IQD In ReportNet FrameWork?

A) IQD is impromptu Query Definition. It's a transformer report. To use an IQd in reportnet framework manager, there is a process called externalization using which you can import the IQD.

IQD Is impromptu query definition, the name it self indicating dat, it contains the SQL statement. To create the iqd in Frame work manager, create a new query subject with required query items .

Set the Externalise method property of that Query subject to 'iqd'.While the publishing the package select the 'Generate the files for Externalized query subjects'. And publish it to the local machine, which can be used as data source for Transfromer model.

Q) How u provide security to reports??how u provide security to packages ?

A) Through Access Manager.

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Interview Questions

2008-04-07T01:09:00.000-07:00

How to create a dynamic column name in Cognos?

These are the steps -

i. Create a calculated column which contains the information that the header is to contain, such as "Report for year 1999" (concatenated text and date to string sub string extraction).

ii. Highlight the report, and then right-click.

iii. Select Properties, and then click the Headers/Footers tab.

iv. Clear the Column Title Header check box. This will remove the headers from your columns.

v. Reinsert the rest of the column headers; insert text will work.

vi. For the dynamic column, from the Insert menu, click Data and select the calculated column you created and insert it into the report.

In cognos 8.0, First create a Calculated Data Item, select the list, associate it with the Query in Which Calculated Data Item is created, then click on Structure and then List Header and Footers. Check List Header and make the Box Type of the Column header as None.

Unlock and then drag the Calculated Data Item into the required header which will look like a Column Header in the report.

For making a column name dynamic the only thing that you have to do is insert a layout calculations from the toolbox tab in report studio.

I came across this answer because I wanted each column in across tabulation to have a text description different from the variable (column's) name. Cognos's gloriously useless documentation says nothing on how to do this and adding text isn't an allowed action in page design mode (the error message you get goes beyond unhelpful). To have the column titles, row footers, etc., you want:

1) Switch to page structure view in report studio

2) Expand the crosstab by clicking the plus signs untilcrosstab row levels, crosstab level(variable_name), etc. are visible.

3) From the insertable objects, drag a 'Block' at the level you’d like to add the text. This takes some experimenting.

4) after the block's been added, add into the block a Text Item from the insertable objects.

5) a window will open and you can type in whatever text you want.It's no wonder Jim Goodnight has such harshness towards Cognos.

Interview Qustions

2008-04-07T01:05:00.000-07:00

What is exact catalog size?

There is no limit for catalog size. It may be 3MB Or 4MB.

Give me some examples for Lifecycle reporting, I mean which lifecycle we will use for reporting?

There is no specific reporting lifecycle. We can generate the reports from data warehouse/data marts or we can generate the reports directly from OLTP systems.What I mean generating reports from OLTP systems is loading data into one system and generating the reports. But this is not recommended. This will depends on the business.

1) Generating reports from the OLAP interface system retrieving the data from the data warehouse to generating forms and reports.

2) They can use Business intelligence project life cycle.

HOW MANY LEVELS CAN BE USED IN DRILL THROUGH REPORTS?

Two levels summary and detail.

Where u can save the Report net documentation in our local system?

Whenever we Install Cognos Server we get it documentation alone otherwise we can store it in Deployment Folder of Cognos

What is model and how to create model and how to test model?

Create a Model In framework Manager and then publish it, make sure that Model meets the requirements, don't overload the model with unwanted query items

Model is nothing but a project. And the project will be created by framework manager in which we can extract the metadata from the various operational sources... we will test the model by using the TOAD

Model contains meta data which is related to business reporting Information. We import this data from the data base. Using this metadata we are creating Packages, Publishing packages, This metadata contains query subjects and namespaces.........

How to crate cubes in transformer ?

Cube can be created by using different data sources. Data sources: iqd, tex file Cube creation by using iqd data sources.
1) These iqd sources are coming from impromptu

Interview Questions

2008-04-07T00:40:00.000-07:00

How u burst the reports? if u r bursted reports is not reached to destination how u identify???When You Import data into catalog You have complex columns names. How do you change the Name of those columns?

First you have to click on column header which you have to change. Then in property pane you will found name option. Then change column name.

How to create measures and Dimensions?

By using the Framework Manager we can create measures and dimensions according to our business needs.

How to pass parameter value into html design page?

(That is YOU Create a html page and use that page in your cognos 8 report header.take my question is how to use parameter value in the html page .)

By writing the JavaScript code in the html item, we can insert the parameter values. Here is the URL to use to call report from java The following URL will work. Please note that prompt names are case sensitive and we need to prefix 'p_' to the defined prompt names. Although this passes the prompt values, it doesn’t suppress the prompt page.

So, in order to achieve that we include an additional expression (&run.prompt=false) http:///cognos8/cgi-bin/cognos.cgi?b_action=xts.run&m=portal/report-viewer.xts&ui.action=run&ui.object=%2fcontent%2fpackage%5b%40name%3d%27(optional)%27%5d%2freport%5b%40name%3d%27%27%5d&run.prompt=false&p_p_year=2007&p_p_month=09
Here p_year and p_month are the parameter name for prompt

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIST REPORT AND CROSSTAB REPORT?

List report show data in rows and columns versus a cross tab report show data in grids with dimension in rows and columns and measures in cells or in the intersection points.

List Report and Cross tab report both contains rows and columns but difference is list report is a detail report for analysis whereas cross tab report is the intersection of data or summarized data for analysis.

Interview Questions

2008-04-07T00:32:00.000-07:00

What are the limitations of cognos reportnet?

In CRN we can't view multi dimensionally,

-we cant' see a report in excel,

-we can't format a report in CRN

Report net does not support drill through and also bursting of reports is no possible in report net. Also it does not support dimensional analysis

What is loop in framework manager ?

Loop is an very dangerous exception in framework manager we can resolve the loop create alias table. loop Display wrong results in the reportnet. A Loop is a Closed Path Circuit....
Avoid loops: using shortcuts.We have ambiguous relationships types:Hierarchical relationships Recursive relationships Multi-valid relationships. To avoid these relationships using shortcuts.

What are the different ways of adding data in Transformer?

In transformer u import metadata from architect or catalog to create a cube. We just import metadata. we don’t add data to it

What are slowly changing dimensions? Why we are used SCD?

Slowly Changing Dimensions are those whose data are not fixed.

SCD types:

SCD type 1: Whose data is not fixed.

Historical data are not saved. Data keeps on changing.-> Current Data

SCD type 2: Whose data is fixed and also save historical data.

SCD type 3: Like SCD type 2 only but save historical data in another table. In one table data will updated and in another table historical data will be there.

Depends what we are going to use a DWH or Database.

What r the names of the reports that u prepared?

List report, Cross tab report, pie charts etcs....
master detail, drill through, cascadingList, Cross tab, Chart, Map report are the basic report of Cognos.

What is the importance of Dimension in the cognos.?

Without Dimension and Fact cannot make a relation between tables it could not be use for joins and retrieve the data as a form of reports in cognos. Dimension is a major subject area through which we can analysis our business.

Interview Questions

2008-04-07T00:24:00.000-07:00

How we check the errors before running the report, Plz let me know the answer?

Before u run a report. U have an option called 'valididate report' in run menu..

Then u can find the errors what u made.

Actually we are migrating one project to ACTUATE business intelligence solution to COGNOS REPORTNET? why the client want to migrate from ACTUATE to COGNOS REPORTNET? What are the special features in COGNOS REPORTNET?

CRN is web based tool. So it will very useful to view the reports very easily. So that they preferred CRN

How you create IQD In ReportNet Framework?

Open framework manager click on any query subject and go Open the properties dialogue box and u can observe the EXTERNALIZE METHOD u change the iqd.

How to pass multiple values from pick list prompt to sub report filter?

#parameter1#. Give this in ur filter where u pass multiple values

What is Stitch Query in Reportnet?

Framework Manager generates a separate query for each 'FACT' table and joins the result set. This is called Stitched query.

I think when there is no join between two tables and we are dragging in 2 cols from 2 diff tables which doesn’t have joins then cognos will automatically build 2 or more select clauses with full outer join stitching in the 2 select clauses this is called stitched query

What is Snapshot ?

A Snapshot is a Permanent Local Copy Of the Report.Snapshot is Static Data Source it is saved with .imr File it is suitable for Disconnected Network....

What is cube size?

2.0 GBIt depends on ur project requirements.

What is log in cognos?

While creating reports or creating models logs have all information till session closed.

What is associated grouping? And how it works in cognos impromptu?

You can associate one or more data items with a grouped data item. An associated data item should have a one-to-one relationship with the grouped data item. For example, Order No. is a grouped data item.

For each order number, there is an Order Date. Order No. and Order Date have a one-to-one relationship.

Interview Questions

2008-04-06T23:54:00.000-07:00

How to perform single sign on in Cognos by using URL?

In cognos configuration under authentication allow anonymous access should be false.In cgi-bin properties (under iis) the enable anonymous access should be false.

What is loop in framework manager?

Loop is closed path in reportnet it called as ambiguous relationship. That means a query subject contains multiple paths to retrieve the data. It is an exception to resolve to create a shortcut on that query subject otherwise it displays wrong results in reports and performance is degrades.

An undefined join between two tables is known as loop.To resolve loop delete the joins, if these joins are necessary then we have to create shortcuts nothing but alias tables. Place the joins in alias tables.

A LOOP IS A CLOSED PATH IN FRAME WORK MANAGER DUE TO JOINS.

WE ILL RESOLVED IT BY CREATING ALLIAS AND CREATING SHORT CUTS.

How you migrate reports to cognos 8 from previous versions?

Migration means report net reports to cognos8.rn Upgrade .bat/rs upgrade .sh is a standalone utility that upgrades a single report specification at a time out side of the cognos.

What are the filters in Framework Manager and Report Studio?

Filters in framework manager are

1. Standalone filters

2. Embedded filters

Report studio Filters are

1. Detail filters

2. Summary filters

How u migrate the reports from impromptu to reportnet???

It's possible to to migrate impromptu reports to reportnet using the migration tool(own by reportnet 1.1)Using this syntax: migratetocrn
HERE crn----Cognos RoportNet

What is IQD? What is contained in IQD?

IQD stands for Impromptu query definition. It is report save extension with .iqd it is use for creating a cube in power play transformer

IQD is Impromptu Query Definition. It contains the SQL query to display the data from the database and SQL query is automatically created based on the columns selected from database.

IQD MEANS IMPROMPTU QUERY DEFFINITION,IT CONTAINS MULTIDIMENTIONAL DATA STRUCTURE WITH ARRAY FORMAT FOR CREATING CUBES.

THIS REPORTS CAN BE SAVED WITH .IQD FILES.

Interview Questions

2008-04-06T23:38:00.000-07:00

How to find out YEAR CALCULATION? THAT MEANS YOU SHOW THIS YEAR REVENUE AND LAST YEAR REVENUE. WHEN YOU FILTER THIS YEAR VALUE THE RESULT SHOULD DISPLAY THIS YEAR RESULT AND LAST YEAR RESULT?

By using expressions, I mean by using conditional constructs and thru graphs we can view the revenue and calculated data as well.

How to configure the Cognos configurations to work in the Windows 2000 Server machine?

Go to Cognos Configuration and see the settings for cognos in the explorer page. There u can set for win2000 server

What is drill down and slicing and dicing what are the difference between them?

Drill down means it will explains the summary level information to lowest level information.

Slicing is nothing but cutting edge of the cube.

Dicing is nothing but viewing the cube in all possible directions.

Drill down is the way to get the more detailed data.

Slicing and dicing is to get the data according to where clause.

What are the enhancements in cognos reportnet ?

Enhancements in Cognos reportnet is Cognos 1.0, 1.1, MR1.1, MR1.2 Cognos 1.0,1.1,MR1.1,MR1.2 AND cognos 8,8.1.1MR,8.1.2MR, now new version is 8.2Enhancement in cognos in the list report:-

1) Apply list column title styles

2) Apply list column body styles

3) Apply table styles

Explain the different stages in creating a report in cognos report net?

Open cognos connection in that select Report studio or query studio it will displays there u have packages(ex: gosales and goretailr (defult)) clik on that it display Report studio in that select Object pane select required query subject then click run it displays ur report on report viewer screen.

What is Report item?

Report item is nothing but a query item when it is drag and drop into the work area.

Example in Go sales and retailers package-> Product (is a query subject) and-> Product line is( a query item)->when PL is dropped into the work area then its a report item.

Interview Questions

2008-04-06T23:29:00.000-07:00

What is the difference between group and association?

In cognos 'group' is used to suppress the duplicate values. And 'associate' is used to suppress the values if it is one-one relationship.

Group - It Eliminates the Duplicate values from the report break the columns. Its having a one to many relationship.

Association-It Eliminates the Duplicate values from the report and its having one-one relationship.

Both Group & Association eliminate duplicates in a column.But we cannot use Association alone.It should have one to one relationship with grouped column.

Using Association is a performance enhancement technique.

A GROUP IS USED TO ELIMINATE THE DUPLICATES IN DATA.WHERE A ASSOCIATION IS USED TO HIRE OR SUPPRESS THE VALUES IN 1 TO 1 RELATION.

What is Cardinality?

Cardinality is nothing but relation between tables like

One to One,

One to Many and

Many to Many.

Cardinality is the nature of the relationship. 1-1,1-many relation shipsCardinality is the nature of the relation between two query items

How to test reports in cognos?

Go to power play transformer, on toolbar select RUN menu. In RUN menu there is one option that is TEST BUILD you can test ur report there.

You may also test the outcome of a report by writing and executing SQL Queries and comparing the outcome with the report outcome.

BY USING SYSTEM TESTING, UNIT TESTING, PERFORMANCE TESTING

How u create security to reports?

Basically there are two types of securities for any object Levels of Securities:

1. Database level Security

2. Row level security

Even we can provide LDAP security too.

By setting up the Governors in frame work manager also we can give the security to the data accessing through the report.

Interview Questions

2008-04-06T23:25:00.000-07:00

What are the Ways to Import Data into Catalog?

Create a catalog with .cat file...

Report studio has two SQL tabs one native SQL and another one cognos SQL which one is get more preference? which one we need to consider?

Cognos sql

When we save a report in report studio with what extn it save?

It saves as .XML

It will save as .CRR
When we save the report it save our specifications like u can choose(in report studio RUN MENU by clinking down icon) HTML,XML,CSV,OR PDF Format if u save the report HTML u can also run report different format as u like or different language also Depends on the format on which the report is being run.

By default its .html format. The report can be made to run in any formats like HTML, PDF, XLS, CSV ( Comma separated format) and XML and based on that, report can be saved in either .html, .pdf, .xls, .csv or .xml

When you r viewing the report in the package is shown with extension .crr

How can I convert a list report/Cross tab Report in Cognos EP series into a bar chart or pie chart etc.?

This can be done in Impromptu administrator

How many numbers of cubes can we create on a single model? How can we navigate between those cubes?

Using a single Model, we can create as many number of cubes u want. By using the dimension views...etc. Regarding the navigation, when we save cubes, these act as separator multidimensional databases. There wont be any relations. Navigate means opening the cubes separately.

What is the difference between drill down and drill through?

Drill down means it will navigate from detail information to summary level information within report. Drill through means it will navigate from summary to detail from report to report.

Interview Questions

2008-04-06T22:53:00.000-07:00

How to create users and permissions in cognos?

Users and Permissions can be given in Access manager - Administration.

Individual users can be created using their names or their Ids (if any) in Access manager and then be given permissions.

This tool is loaded when you install Cognos 7.x in your machine.

In content manager--we have one component called cognos process manager, using process manager we can integrate with third party tools like LDAP or NTLM. we cannot create users in reportnet directly. in real time we can use LDAP.

What is the difference between macros and prompt?

Macro is set of instructions to run report.

Prompt is just like a dialog box which will ask user to select/enter the information what he needs.

A MACRO IS RUN TIME PARAMETER WHICH CAN BE PLACED IN ANY PART OF SQL SELECT STATEMENT,WHERE AS PROMPT IS USED TO GIVE CONDITIONS.

What is Cognos Visualizer and Cognos Scripting?

Cognos scripting is like a language, with this we will create macros, Macro is a set of instructions to run a report.

Cognos Visualizer is a tool for creating charts(bar, pie, histogram......) & maps using datasources(datafiles like mdc,iqd,csv,excel etc).

What is query subject?

A query subject is the basic building block in Framework Manager. A query subject is a set of query items that have an inherent relationship.

2008-04-06T22:48:00.000-07:00

What is the security module used in cognos?

The security module used in cognos is cognos access manager.

What is report burn and where it occurs?

Report can be divided into different parts and sending these different parts of report to different users. It occurs in cognos connection.

What is difference between drill through and drill down?

DRILL THROUGH ALLOWS U TO NAVIGATE FROM SUMMARY TO DETAILED INFORMATION.

DRILL DOWN ALSO SIMILAR KIND OF THING,

FOR EXAMPLE WILL DO DRILL DOWN ON YEAR IF We DRILL DOWN ON THIS THE NEXT LEVEL WILL COME MEANS YEAR CONTAINS QUATERS, IT CONTAINS MONTHS,MONTHS CONTAINS WEEKS, WEEK CONTAINS DAYS.SO,WE CAN VIEW ALL THE LEVELS THROUGH DRILL DOWN

For example I developed some reports on employee package now I have to develop same reports to another package. How can I change reports to another package?

Open that report and save as that reportSelect public folder and then select package in which package u want to save then save it.

Improve performance of the reports

2008-04-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

How can we improve performance of the reports?

Follow this Steps

1. Don’t use the Not in function in the query.

2. Check the Governor Settings.

3. Check the table qualifying and weighting.

4. Check the client/server balancing.

5. Avoid using complex calculations avoid complex reportcheck filter condition,use less filteravoid unwanted calculation.

2008-02-08T08:50:00.000-08:00

Cognos & Business Intelligence:

"Cognos is the world leader in business intelligence (BI) and performance planning software for the enterprise. Its solutions let companies improve and direct corporate performance by enabling all of the key steps in the management cycle—from planning and budgeting, to measuring and monitoring performance, to reporting and analysis.

Cognos is the only company to support all of these key management activities with a complete solution that spans all of the essential components of CPM—enterprise planning, scorecarding, and business intelligence."

Vendor:www.Cognos.com

Products: Business Intelligence

Cognos ReportNet
Cognos PowerPlay
Cognos DecisionStream
Cognos NoticeCast
Cognos Performance Applications

ScoreCards and Dashboards:

Cognos Metrics Manager
Cognos ReportNet

Planning and Consolidation:

Cognos Planning
Cognos Controller
Cognos Finance

2008-02-04T20:58:00.000-08:00

Cognos PowerPlay Transformer - Models and Cubes

PowerPlay Transformer is a Cognos component used to define OLAP cubes structure and data (in PowerPlay models) and build the multidimensional analysis cubes called PowerCubes.
A PowerCube contains calculated, summarized data organized into dimensions and measures and can be viewed and analysed in the PowerPlay Web Explorer, PowerPlay client for Windows, PowerPlay for Excel or Cognos 8 BI. PowerCubes provide secure and fast data access.

Keep in mind that Cognos cubes are static and building a PowerCube is a repetitive process (cubes may be refreshed every day, every month or even once a year).

The PowerCubes can be accessed and used both on-line (PowerPlay Web & Cognos 8) and off-line (PowerPlay Client).

Main PowerPlay Transformer features:

· Advanced modelling capabilities

· Leverages aggregate and fact tables

· Intergation of the query data into the model

· The models are defined by dimension structures and measures which can be easily customized

· No custom programming required

· Time periods are handled in a specific way which makes data delivery easy

· High flexibilty and portability

PowerPlay cubes modelling & development process

The application development process in Cognos PowerPlay Transformer usually contains the following steps:

· Gather business users requirements

· Create a Model Plan which will include design and data requirements for the model and decide on the cube distribution methodology

· Select measures

· Plan dimensions and levels

· Design and develop the PowerPlay model in Transformer

· Create PowerPlay cubes and distribute them to the end users

· Analyze and explore the cube data using PowerPlay

A Transformer Model can be also created using a wizard with AutoDesign function or manually. We strongly recommend to avoid the AutoDesign function as in most cases it does not provide the results expected.

PowerPlay Transformer application

The default Cognos PowerPlay transformer window is composed of the following windows depicted on the the screenshots below.

Building a PowerPlay model involves designating columns in the source files as measures and dimensions&levels.

· Data Sources - a list of all connected data sources. Each source can be expanded and it lists all available columns. Users can browse the source data by using Data Source Viewer. Columns from a data source window can be dragged & dropped to the dimensions and measures windows accordingly.

· Dimension Map manages the dimensions and levels hierarchy in the data model. It allows creating new dimensions and modifying existing using an user-friendly graphical interface. Dimensions and underlaying Levels are created by moving columns from the Data Sources window to the corresponding dimension column.

· Measures - drag & drop columns to manage number figures (facts) in a PowerPlay model.

· PowerCubes - you can specify here a list of cubes created by the model.

· User Classes - define the security.

· Signons - datasource connection information.

Cognos Powerplay Transformer model for the palm nursery business scenario:

Cognos PowerPlay Transformer Tutorial

2008-02-04T20:56:00.000-08:00

This tutorial is based on a typical business scenario to facilitate the learning process. It is described in more detail here:

Palm nursery Business Scenario - a palm and tropical plants nursery which implements Cognos as an analysis and reporting platform which monitors performance on sales, costs and forecasts.

Cognos PowerPlay Transformer Guide for datawarehouse developers:

· 1. Transformer overview - Introduction to PowerPlay Transformer with the components overview and application development process definition

· 2. Data Sources in Transformer - Connecting to various Data Sources with PowerPlay Transformer

· 3. Time dimension - Time dimension in Cognos PowerPlay Transformer

· 4. Customer dimensions - Create dimensions in Cognos PowerPlay Transformer tutorial model

· 5. Products dimensions - Create dimensions for Products in the tutorial model

· 6. Define Measures - Define measures in the tutorial model and create the PowerCube

· 7. Measures allocation - A technique that makes it possible to analyze and compare data grouped on a different detail level

· Drill through in Cognos - Example of a Drill Through report browsing in Cognos PowerPlay

· Framework manager and Content Store in Cognos 8 - What is the concept of Cognos content store and how was the area handled in previous versions of cognos.

2008-02-04T20:51:00.001-08:00

PowerPlay Transformer application

The default Cognos PowerPlay transformer window is composed of the following windows depicted on the the screenshots below. Building a PowerPlay model involves designating columns in the source files as measures and dimensions&levels.

· Measures - drag & drop columns to manage number figures (facts) in a PowerPlay model.

· PowerCubes - you can specify here a list of cubes created by the model.

· User Classes - define the security.

· Signons - datasource connection information.

Cognos Powerplay Transformer model for the palm nursery business scenario:

2008-02-04T20:44:00.000-08:00

PowerPlay cubes modelling & development process

The application development process in Cognos PowerPlay Transformer usually contains the following steps:

· Gather business users requirements

· Create a Model Plan which will include design and data requirements for the model and decide on the cube distribution methodology

· Select measures

· Plan dimensions and levels

· Design and develop the PowerPlay model in Transformer

· Create PowerPlay cubes and distribute them to the end users

2008-02-04T20:40:00.000-08:00

Cognos PowerPlay Transformer - Models and Cubes

PowerPlay Transformer is a Cognos component used to define OLAP cubes structure and data (in PowerPlay models) and build the multidimensional analysis cubes called PowerCubes.

A PowerCube contains calculated, summarized data organized into dimensions and measures and can be viewed and analysed in the PowerPlay Web Explorer, PowerPlay client for Windows, PowerPlay for Excel or Cognos 8 BI. PowerCubes provide secure and fast data access.

Keep in mind that Cognos cubes are static and building a PowerCube is a repetitive process (cubes may be refreshed every day, every month or even once a year).
The PowerCubes can be accessed and used both on-line (PowerPlay Web & Cognos 8) and off-line (PowerPlay Client).

Main PowerPlay Transformer features:

· Advanced modelling capabilities

· Leverages aggregate and fact tables

· Intergation of the query data into the model

· The models are defined by dimension structures and measures which can be easily customized

· No custom programming required

· Time periods are handled in a specific way which makes data delivery easy

· High flexibilty and portability.

2008-02-04T20:34:00.000-08:00

How do the Cognos 8 applications relate to Cognos 7 and earlier products?

· Query Studio and Report Studio are close to the idea of Cognos Impromptu

· Analysis Studio is an OLAP reporting tool which puts it in the same category as Cognos PowerPlay. However, there are still many features missing is Analysis Studio compared to PowerPlay Client or Web. That's why Analysis Studio may be considered as a complementary application for PowerPlay, not as a replacement.

Please refer to the following PowerPlay and Analysis Studio comparison for more details.

· Event Studio is an equivalent to Notice Cast

· Report Studio in Cognos 8 has an integrated maps feature which makes it a replacement for Cognos Visualizer

· Metric Studio is a replacement for Cognos 7 Metrics Manager

· Framework manager has the features of Impromptu Administrator. Framework Manager can also be considered in some aspects as an equivalent of PowerPlay Transformer.

· In Cognos 8 the powerplay cubes created with PP Transformer can be accessed via Query Studio, Report Studio and Cognos Connection.

2008-02-04T20:29:00.001-08:00

Cognos 8 Business Intelligence applications overview

Cognos 8 Business Intelligence combines the features of all previous products and applications and provides a complete and scalable BI solution for corporate business information management and reporting.

Cognos 8 has a completely different architecture than the previous versions, every component is integrated and in one place and the main and most significant idea is to use one common metadata for all components.

Cognos BI 8 components

Cognos 8 Business Intelligence applications:

· Query Studio - a tool to create basic ad-hoc reports and a lighter version of Report Studio. It allows users to create one 1-page report at a time. Application used by Query Authors and Report Authors.

· Report Studio - used to create and manage more advanced reports, which are very often standarized and recreated periodically and distributed to people in various departments in an organization. Reports designs created in Query Studio can be read and edited in Report Studio (not the opposite way). Report Studio is used by Report Authors.

· Analysis Studio - an application to analyze cubes and explore business data in a multidimensional manner. Mainly used by business analysts.

· Metrics Studio - used for the scorecarding. The idea behind it is to put performance indicators next to the organization's key performance measures (red, orange, green status notation).

· Event Studio - a process (an agent) which runs in the background and monitors the data and reacts when ocurrs something which may be cause a problem in the future in the business. For instance, if quantity of product X on stock is less than a given value, event manager can send an email to the responsible person which will contain a warning with problem description and a cognos report attached.

· Cognos Connection - it is a Web portal for Cognos 8 and a component which interracts with the Content Store. It is a frontend to publish, find, manage, organize, and view organization’s business intelligence data.

· PowerPlay Transformer and PowerPlay Client - the default cognos 8 installation comes with the PowerPlay Transformer 7.3. By including PowerPlay in Cognos 8 suite, Cognos shows that they still have no complete replacement for this strategic product.

· Content Store is a database where the metadata for all the Cognos 8 component is stored and managed centrally.

Content store can be accessed directly from the Framework Manager. Framework Manager is the Cognos 8 modeling tool for creating and managing business-related metadata for use in Cognos 8 analysis and reporting.

The main users of Framework manager are data warehouse developers and data modelers. Report authors base on the metadata information set up using Framework manager when creating new reports.

2008-02-04T20:22:00.000-08:00

Cognos 7 Business Intelligence applications overview

Cognos Series 7

The main Cognos Series 7 Business Intelligence and applications:

· Cognos PowerPlay - multidimensional analysis and OLAP reporting software. PowerPlay is available in a couple of versions: PowerPlay Web, PowerPlay Client and PowerPlay for Microsoft Excel. Cognos PowerPlay windows Client application has more features available than PowerPlay Web Explorer.

· Powerplay Enterpise Server is used to deploy cubes to the Cognos 7 WebPortal and also Cognos 8

· Cognos PowerPlay Transformer is an application used to generate and update PowerCubes which are distributed to the end users

· PowerPlay Connect - an application which manages connections to Cognos OLAP source or any of the supported OLAP servers (Hyperion Essbase, IBM DB2 OLAP, Microsoft Analysis Services, local Microsoft .cub files, SAP BW)

· Cognos Impromptu - software for advanced reporting

· Metrics Manager - scorecarding software

· Notice Cast - event management application which runs in the background

The data model and flow of the data in Cognos is as follows:

· Analyze and define the data structure in source systems

· Use PowerPlay Transformer to connect to one or more sources of data and build multidimensional models

· Create the Cognos PowerCubes in Transformer and distribute those multidimensional models (and/or use PowerPlay Enterprise Server for distribution and to apply security to the OLAP cubes)

· View the distributed PowerCubes using Cognos PowerPlay for Windows, PowerPlay for Excel, Powerplay Web or Cognos Visualizer.

2008-02-04T20:15:00.000-08:00

Cognos Business Intelligence and performance management

The main objective of Business Intelligence is to bring the right information at the right time. Usually, the data is pulled from several sources and transformed into accurate and consistent information which is stored in the Data Warehouse.

Cognos Business Intelligence solutions help on understanding, monitoring and managing company's performance which includes business reporting & analysis, profitability measurement, budgeting, forecasting optimization and cost management.

Cognos is a fast and efficient technique to deliver multidimensional business intelligence data.
Building a Data Warehouse and a complete and well performnig Information Management system in an Organization is a challenge both for the business and technical experts. The most important thing to have in mind that Business Intelligence is not an IT driven area and it needs to come out as a need from the business and require tight and constant cooperation.
That is why in order to deliver valuable information to the business and perform efficiently it is required to understand end-users needs and cooperate closely with the business before implementing Cognos applications.

The first step is to define organization's goals, concerns, expectations and find out how users want to use the data, what types of reports will they want to create and what is the best way to spread the information accross the organization.

http://dwh-cognos.blogspot.com

· The site is addressed to both business and technical users, includes cognos technical tutorials and guides for business users.

· Includes cognos 7 and cognos 8 comparison and provides information on specific features of each of these systems.

· Helps users resolve problems related to cognos products as well as provides rich information with tutorials, examples and best practices.

· Our editors are specialists with a strong Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing professional background and broad experience with a number of Cognos implementations.

Data Warehouse Concepts

2007-12-29T06:39:00.000-08:00

Data Warehouse Concepts

What is a Data Warehouse?

According to Inmon, famous author for several data warehouse books, "A data warehouse is a subject oriented, integrated, time variant, non volatile collection of data in support of management's decision making process".

Example: In order to store data, over the years, many application designers in each branch have made their individual decisions as to how an application and database should be built. So source systems will be different in naming conventions, variable measurements, encoding structures, and physical attributes of data. Consider a bank that has got several branches in several countries, has millions of customers and the lines of business of the enterprise are savings, and loans. The following example explains how the data is integrated from source systems to target systems.

Example of Source Data

System Name	Attribute Name	Column Name	Datatype	Values
Source System 1	Customer Application Date	CUSTOMER_APPLICATION_DATE	NUMERIC(8,0)	11012005
Source System 2	Customer Application Date	CUST_APPLICATION_DATE	DATE	11012005
Source System 3	Application Date	APPLICATION_DATE	DATE	01NOV2005

In the aforementioned example, attribute name, column name, datatype and values are entirely different from one source system to another. This inconsistency in data can be avoided by integrating the data into a data warehouse with good standards.

Example of Target Data(Data Warehouse)

Target System	Attribute Name	Column Name	Datatype	Values
Record #1	Customer Application Date	CUSTOMER_APPLICATION_DATE	DATE	01112005
Record #2	Customer Application Date	CUSTOMER_APPLICATION_DATE	DATE	01112005
Record #3	Customer Application Date	CUSTOMER_APPLICATION_DATE	DATE	01112005

In the above example of target data, attribute names, column names, and datatypes are consistent throughout the target system. This is how data from various source systems is integrated and accurately stored into the data warehouse.

Data Warehouse Architecture Diagram