OBIEE11g Scorecarding Part 1

This is the first part of a 6 part series on how to technically implemented the OBIEE Scorecards

A balanced scorecard can be a great high level management tool: See:http://www.balancedscorecard.org/BSCResources/TheNineStepstoSuccess/tabid/58/Default.aspx

OBIEE11g has a couple of nice feature to support this process.

!! Before you go any further, check if and how your OBIEE licence covers the use of scorecards !!

SCORECARD:

Let’s start with the basics and create a new scorecard:

Select New >> Performance Management >> Scorecard

Enter a Name, Description and Location:

You now have entered the score card editor:

VISION STATEMENT:

A Balanced Scorecard starts with a vision statement:

Scorecard Documents>> Create Vision:

In the document tab enter your vision:

in the details tab you can add extra link to more documentation:

And set the vision owner! This will send any comment email to the right person:

Save your vision document:

You will see that it’s added to Scorecard documents list:

Till Next Time

OBIEE11g Creating KPI Watchlist

Once you have defined all your KPI’s you can add them to a watchlist:
From your analytics home select KPi Watchlist

Select add KPI:

Select the KPI you want to watch (one at a time)

Leave the prompt on Point of view
(if you have only a laptop install you might want to put in some restrions ….. .

Switch to the details tab and enter a description:

Set the owner (Adam Bell)

Add some related documents:

Save the watchlist:

and start playing around.
Be aware: KPI wachtlist are very very big resource eaters and might cloug up your laptop!
Till Next Time

OBIEE11g Creating a KPI

One of the major new features in OBIEE11g are the KPI and Score carding functionalities. Before you can make a scorecard you first need your KPI’s. (check out wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_indicator)

Let’s make a basic KPI:

open OBIEE analytics and select Performance Management KPI:

Select the sample sales subject area

Start with a proper description:

Select the KPI owner (Adam Bell)

Select 1 – Revenue as the actual value:

Select  5 – Target Revenue as Target Value

Enable Trending:

Let’s do this on a monthly basis:

Press Next:

The dimensionality define’s how out KPI can be sliced and diced:

Let’s select Year, Quarter and Month and the products and office hierarchy:

(You can use multiselect)

Click Next

Lets define the state level triggers:

Say 95 & 97 %

Click Next

Add a link to the wiki definition

Click Next

Add a custom Attribute AVG Revenue:

Click Finish

Give it a usefull name:

Goto your home and open the KPI:

Till Next Time

OBIEE11g Report Logo’s

OBIEE has some nice default report logo’s. Problem is you don’t always have access to the directory to browse them. Here is a Cheat Sheet:

Also available as PDF. download here

Till Next Time

OBIEE11g Script metadata generation

After deploying your RPD for a couple of time you will have noticed the nice versioning OBIEE does:

Problem with this versioning is that you loose your Meta Data Dictionary (MDD) setup every time you deploy a new rpd.

Actually this is good since a new RPD should mean that al your changes end up in the MDD. Especially on development systems where updates are done on & off-line, the MDD will soon be out of sync.
Why not set up a job which simple refreshes the old and adds the new onces.
WARNING This script uses the /Command for the admin tool which is NOT supported (or documented )
Let´s start with a VB script:

On Error Resume Next
    Dim fso, folder, files, NewFileP, NewFile, RPDFolder, MDFolder, delfolder, AdminUser, AdminPassword, WshShell
 
    Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    'Be sure there is no \ at the end of the repository folder
    if right(Parameter(0),1) = "\" then
        RPDFolder = left(Parameter(0), len(Parameter(0), -1))
        else
        RPDFolder = Parameter(0)
    end if
   
    'Be sure there is no \ at the end of the repository folder
    if right(Parameter(1),1) = "\" then
        MDFolder= left(Parameter(1), len(  MDFolder= Parameter(1), -1))
        else
        MDFolder= Parameter(1)
    end if
   
    AdminUser = Parameter(2)
    AdminPassword = Parameter(3)
   
    Set folder = fso.GetFolder(RPDFolder)
    Set files = folder.Files
 
    For each folderIdx In files
    'loop trough the rpd files
        if right(folderIdx.Name,3) = "rpd" then
            'Delete the "old" meta data
            NewFileP.WriteLine( folderIdx.Name)
            set delfolder = fso.GetFolder(MDFolder&"\"&left(folderIdx.Name,len(folderIdx.Name)-4))
            delfolder.Delete
            Set NewFile = fso.CreateTextFile(RPDFolder&"\nqGenerateMetaData"& left(folderIdx.Name,len(folderIdx.Name)-4) &".txt", True)
            'Add instructions to the \nqGenerateMetaData.txt file
            NewFile.WriteLine( "Open "&  RPDFolder &"\" &left(folderIdx.Name,len(folderIdx.Name)-4) & " " & AdminUser & " "&   AdminPassword & " "&   AdminPassword)
            NewFile.WriteLine( "Hide")
            NewFile.WriteLine( "GenerateMetadataDictionary " & MDFolder & "\" )
            NewFile.WriteLine( "DescribeRepository " & MDFolder & "\"&left(folderIdx.Name,len(folderIdx.Name)-4) & "\REPOS.XML  UTF-8")
            'add the closing commands           
            NewFile.WriteLine( "Close")    
            NewFile.WriteLine( "Exit")
            NewFile.Close   
            'run the script
            Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
            WshShell.run ( "D:\OBIEE\Oracle_BI1\bifoundation\server\bin\AdminTool.exe /command " & RPDFolder& "\nqGenerateMetaData"& left(folderIdx.Name,len(folderIdx.Name)-4) &".txt")
                       
            Set NewFileD = fso.CreateTextFile("d:\xslcopy" & left(folderIdx.Name,len(folderIdx.Name)-4) &".bat", True)
            NewFileD.WriteLine ( "MD " &  MDFolder & "\" & left(folderIdx.Name,len(folderIdx.Name)-4)& "\xsl")
            NewFileD.WriteLine( "COPY D:\OBIEE_REP\Scripts\MetaDataDictionary\xsl\*.* " & MDFolder & "\" & left(folderIdx.Name,len(folderIdx.Name)-4)& "\xsl")
            NewFileD.close
            WshShell.run ("d:\xslcopy" & left(folderIdx.Name,len(folderIdx.Name)-4) &".bat")
       
        End if
    Next

Put it in a file called “AutomateMetaDir.vbs”
The GenerateMetadataDictionary command in 11g doesn’t created the proper XSL directory from the command line. Create one from a manual export and put it in your script directory so you can copy it when needed.

Create a new job to refresh every thing once every x hours.

Don’t forget the parameters:

Till next time

OBIEE SampleAppV107 released

Somebody went really overboard with the demo (+/- 25Gb image) . 45 Gb extracted………….

See http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-foundation/obiee-samples-167534.html

!:UPDATE:!

After playing around with it for a couple of hours I must say:

“WELL DONE ORACLE”

It’s a great collection of how to’s and tips and tricks.

Most of the stuff is nicely documented!.

So clean up your hard drive and get this download!

Till Next Time