12/4/2008 1

OBIEE Technical Conference

Getting Started with a Dashboard Development Project

Theresa May

12/4/2008 2

Agenda

■ Project Scope– Tied to Finance 9.0 upgrade

■ Partnership between ITS and Data Steward– Roles and Responsibilities

■ Process Followed to Implement Finance Dashboards– Requirements Gathering– Dashboard Prototyping– Data Modeling– Feedback– Change Management

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Project Scope

■ Scope the Project for 90-8-2 Success– 90% of campus users require general functionality

» Generally most campus users who require operational information to support business processes on a daily basis.

– 8% of campus users require more flexibility or complex functionality » Generally most power users who write queries and work

with data directly. Requirements might be in a more ad-hoc nature.

– 2% of campus users require the ability to problem solve or do trend analysis by utilizing campus information. » Generally the functional support team and campus

executives.

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Project Scope

■ Phases are Important– Phase the project for 90-8-2– Don’t try to tackle the entire project on day

one– It’s better to deliver smaller components in

shorter time frames than to ask the campus to wait for a larger deliverable over a long period of time

– Phasing the project provides the support teams a chance to understand how to work within the new environment

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Project Scope

■ Review Current Campus Functionality– What is being replaced by the dashboard?

■ Review Timing of Campus Processes– When does the campus need certain

information?■ Is the Data Available?– In Finance Reporting Solution (RSOL)?– In PeopleSoft?

■ Joint Decision to Increase Scope

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Project Scope

■ Initial Phased Approach– Phase I - Department Page» Account summaries» Purchase orders» College based fees

– Phase II – Fund Page» Trial balance» Expense summary

– Phase III – Transaction Research

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Project Scope

■ Phase I – Pages Delivered– My Revenue & Expense– My Open PO’s– My Trial Balance– My Revenue & Expense Transactions– My PO Transactions– My Trial Balance Transactions– My Budget Transactions

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Partnerships Work Best

■ Full Commitment by Data Steward and ITS– To the project

» Communication» Compromise

– To each other» Communication» Compromise

■ No Partnership – No Good■ Must Trust Each Other

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Data Steward Role

■ Project Ownership (Extremely Important)– Data Warehousing is a business function– Data steward should own and drive the project

■ Project Direction and Vision– What information do they want to provide?

■ Validation/Testing– Data validation and testing– Dashboard design input– Dashboard validation and testing

■ Intake for Campus Feedback on Dashboard

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Information Technology Services (ITS) Role

■ Technical Support and Expertise– Supports the data steward

■ Provides the Technical Infrastructure – Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE)– Data warehouse– Servers, load balancers, network, etc.

■ Gathers and Documents Requirements■ Designs and Implements Data Models■ Designs and Implements Dashboards■ Provides an Environment that Allows for a Quick

Response to Fixes and Enhancements

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Requirements Needed

■ Dashboard Requirements– Key performance indicators– Questions to be answered– Flexibility– Downloads– Printing

■ Data Requirements– Sources for data

» Finance reporting solution (RSOL)» PeopleSoft finance tables

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Requirements Gathering Process

■ Don’t Ask Data Steward to Write Down Requirements■ First Learn about the Services the Data Steward

Provides, Business Processes, and Reports– Review RSOL prior to first set of meetings– Set up long information gathering sessions (2-6 hours)– Document information learned from working sessions – Does ITS need an accounting 101 overview? We did!

■ Ask about the Goal for the Dashboard– Is this dashboard to support operational requirements?– Any key performance indicators (KPI’s)?– What questions should be answered?– Who is the audience?

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Dashboard Prototyping Process■ Data Steward should Drive Initial Design

– Describe using» Tool or» Sketching or» White boarding

■ ITS should Provide Guidance and Options – Deliver the dashboard as close to the data steward’s vision as possible

■ ITS should Develop Standards for Enterprise Dashboard Deployment– Branding– Column selectors– Filter view– Information box

■ ITS should Set Up Prototyping Sessions– Set up working sessions (2-6 hours)

■ ITS should Provide Guidance on Terminology (need consistency)– What’s a Page

» Page Prompt» Filter

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Dashboard Prototyping Process

■ ITS should Provide Guidance on Dashboard Layout– Need to start with summarized information– Use drill capability to get to detail– Help demonstrate a new way of looking at

data– This may be a major change management

issue for campus depending on the tool they currently utilize for querying data

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Dashboard Prototyping Process

■ Used RSOL to Build Initial Page Prototypes– Set up RSOL tables in OBIEE Metadata layers– OBIEE requires fact and dimension tables

■ Utilized Preliminary Dashboard Design as Provided by Data Steward

■ Set Up Working Sessions to Build Upon Provided Samples of Dashboard Pages– Made modifications on the fly– Documented items to research– Created task list of items to implement after session

■ Encountered Issues with Drilling and Hierarchies– Determined that there was a Need for a Data Model

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Dashboard Prototyping Process

■ Documentation– Utilize the dashboard prototypes– Document items not included in the

prototype» Research items (things to figure out)» Task list

– Don’t get hung up on documenting all components of the dashboard through prototyping sessions» Next two slides show unsuccessful attempts

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Dashboard Prototyping Process

ID # Business Requirement User Base Priority Phase Benefit

DEPARTMENT - DEPARTMENT REPORT

1.a.1 What are the budget, expenditure and encumbrance amounts for a given Department, by Fund and Account Group within a specific fiscal year?

Budget Specialist      

1.a.2 What are the expenditure amounts for a given Department, by Fund and Account Group within each accounting period for a specific fiscal year?

Budget Specialist      

1.a.3 What are the total expenditure amounts for a given Department(s) for a Fiscal Year? Budget Specialist      

1.a.4 What are the total expenditure amounts for a given Department and Account group, by Fund within each accounting period for a Fiscal Year?

Budget Specialist      

DEPARTMENT - OPEN PURCHASE ORDER LISTING

1.b.1 What PO’s are currently open for a given Department? Budget Specialist      

1.b.2 What PO's are currently open for a given Fund? Budget Specialist      

1.b.3 What is the detailed activity for a given PO? Budget Specialist      

DEPARTMENT - DEPARTMENT REPORT BY SELECTED FUND

1.c.1 What is the Trial Balance for a given Fund by Object Code? Budget Specialist      

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Dashboard Prototyping Process

Req. ID #

Logical Data Element Description/Alias Physical Data Element Filter Sum

1.a Department ID Department ID FINANCE_SUMMARY_BALANCE_CMP.DEPTID

Department Description PS Department Description FINANCE_DEPARTMENT.CSU_PS_DEPARTMENT_DESCR

Fund Code FINANCE_SUMMARY_BALANCE_CMP.FUND_CODE Y

Budgeted Amount FINANCE_SUMMARY_BALANCE_CMP.BUDGETED_AMOUNT Y

Monetary Amount FINANCE_SUMMARY_BALANCE_CMP.MONETARY_AMOUNT Y

Encumbered Amount FINANCE_SUMMARY_BALANCE_CMP.ENCUMBERED_AMOUNT Y

Accounting Period FINANCE_SUMMARY_BALANCE_CMP.ACCOUNTING_PERIOD

GAAP Object Category Code Account Group FINANCE_ACCOUNT.CSU_GAAP_OBJECT_CATEGORY_CODE

GAAP Object Category Descr Account Group Description FINANCE_ACCOUNT.CSU_GAAP_OBJECT_CATEGORY_DESCR

Fiscal Year FINANCE_SUMMARY_BALANCE_CMP.FISCAL_YEAR Y

CSU GAAP Account Type FINANCE_ACCOUNT.CSU_GAAP_ACCOUNT_TYPE_CODE Y

1.b Document ID PO # FINANCE_ENCUMBRANCE.CSU_DOCUMENT_ID

Document Line Number PO Line # FINANCE_ENCUMBRANCE.CSU_DOCUMENT_LINE_NBR

Fund Code FINANCE_ENCUMBRANCE.FUND_CODE

Department ID FINANCE_ENCUMBRANCE.CSU_DEPTID Y

Account FINANCE_ENCUMBRANCE.ACCOUNT

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Data Modeling Process

■ Learned about the Data that Supports the Finance Business Processes– Data steward provided overviews– Discussed business rules »What makes up a revenue or expense?

■ Built Data Model using RSOL as Source– Reviewed design and all data elements

with data steward

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Data Modeling Process

■ Data Modelers and Dashboard Developers – Communicate!– All need to understand the dashboard

requirements– All need to understand data relationships– All need to understand hierarchies within

the data– All need to understand the grain of data– All need to attend working sessions with

data steward

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Feedback Process

■ Dashboard Users – Internal finance team

» Used the dashboard to perform their daily activities– Pilot group

» First set of campus users to use the new dashboard– Campus users

» All users after roll to Production

■ All Feedback must be Funneled through Data Steward

■ Data Steward to Provide Fix-It/Enhancement List to ITS along with Priorities

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Change Management Process

■ Open Forums– Data steward and ITS partnered– Project overview– Demonstrations of new tool & dashboard

■ Tool Training– ITS supported

■ Dashboard Training– Data Steward supported

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Questions?

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Contact

■ OBIEE Technical Conference:http://polydata.calpoly.edu/dashboards/obiee_conf/index.html

■ Email: polydata@calpoly.edu