Optimize BI & Analytics Apps

Alex Stevenson demonstrates how to optimize legacy BI & Analytics applications using Metoscope automation software. This presentation was given at the Hyperion Solutions 2020 virtual conference organised by InterRel Consulting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwSIpg__Gqg

Inspect

This page provides a developer or analyst with the facility to inspect all captured information relating to an element and is available within the Analysis module.

Inspect is comprised of the following panes:

Selection Options

Explore

Compare

Visualize

Annotations

Usage

Selection Options

Explore

Compare

Visualize

Annotations

Usage

Editing or Deleting an Instance | Product Module

Editing or Deleting an Instance | Product Module

Edit

Follow these steps to edit an existing Instance | Product Module:

  1. move the mouse-pointer over the edit link on the appropriate table row and click.
  2. amend the Instance Name and/or Instance Description and click on Save to commit or Cancel to return to the Instances tab.

Delete

Follow these steps to delete an existing Instance | Product Module:

  1. move the mouse-pointer over the delete link on the appropriate table row and click.
  2. a confirmation dialog box will be displayed with “Yes” and “No” buttons. Click on Yes to proceed with deletion of selected Instance | Product Module or No to return to the Instances tab.

Tip: exercise caution when deleting as this change cannot be undone.

Adding a new Application Instance | Product Module

Definition: An Application Instance is a specific occurrence of an application of a Vendor’s software in a distinct environment. For example, there may be a SAP BusinessObjects “Sales & Marketing” BI application that is implemented in 3 environments, e.g. Development, Test and Production. Each application + environment combination is referred to as an “Instance”.

A Product Module is a module within a BI or Analytics software product, e.g. SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Documents, SAP BusinessObjects Universes or Power BI Service, amongst many examples.

Adding an Instance | Product Module

Follow these steps to create an Application Instance with relevant Product Module:

  1. first select a relevant Product Module for which meta data will be captured.
    Tip: the values listed in the Product Module control are populated based on available adaptors. The concatenations of <Vendor | Product | Product Module | Version> are distinct.
  2. next, enter a unique name into the Instance Name field, e.g. “Sales & Marketing (Prod)”
  3. enter a meaningful description
  4. click on the Save button
  5. the adjacent table Current Instances | Product Modules will be updated with the new addition.

Persisted Data Refresh

NB: once a change has been applied to an Instance | Product module it is important that the application data is refreshed. To do this, position the mouse-pointer over the data refresh icon in the top right corner of the page and click.

Explore

This page enables an analyst or developer to search all of the captured meta data associated with a selected Product Module and one or more Instances.

Selection Controls:

This is where the scope of the initial search is set.

Figure 1: selection controls

To select the scope of search, undertake the following tasks:

  1. select a single a Product Module from the dropdown control. The Instance dropdown will be populated with valid values.
  2. select one or more Instances from the dropdown control using the checkboxes. The table underneath the Instance control will be populated with Parts that are present in the selected Instances.
  3. select one, more than one or all Parts using the checkboxes.
    Note: by positioning the mouse-pointer over a column header and right-clicking the mouse button, a local column filter will be displayed which enables a search to be applied to the Parts table. Click away from the table to hide the filter.

Analysis Overview

The Analysis module is designed to enable the exploration of captured meta data in order to achieve rapid insights. Accessed via the topline tab menu or through guided navigation from the Home page, the following pages are available:

Figure 1: Tabs available under “Analysis”

Explore: enables retrieval of nodes, attributes and values from multiple instances of a selected Product Module. For example, search for all occurrences of a key word (e.g. “discount”) or object type (e.g. query) across SAP BusinessObjects instances for Finance and Sales & Marketing.

Inspect: provides a facility to view captured meta data, usage data and applied annotations relating to a single selected Part (e.g. dashboard, analysis, report or semantic layer). Furthermore, visualizations are available to view the Object Model of the selected Part or view as a hierarchical tree or treemap. It is also possible to view the similarity of the selected Part against all other parts within the relevant Instance.

Query: this is where a user can write, save and re-use their own SQL queries to interrogate the meta data repository.

Visualize: a range of chart and diagram types are available to support insights into lineage, hierarchical relationships and structures between and within BI & Analytics Parts.

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