Here is some useful advice courtesy of Joshua Fletcher from ASG Group who is speaking at BI 2012 Europe in Milan June 6-8. I took a peek at his presentation on 10 universe design best practices using the new information design tool … and there are more than 10 best practices!
Here are a few of Josh’s expert recommendations.
Three best practice categories:
- Each category needs to be addressed to ensure a universe is optimally designed
- Remember – if the universe isn’t user friendly, technically correct, and performs well, you can do better!
- User focus – delivering business value
- Technical focus – being technically sound
- Performance focus – ensuring high performance
Tips for success:
User Focus
- Define a universal naming convention that makes sense for your business, and ensure it is used in all universe designs
- Object classification, naming , descriptions and formatting should be relevant to the business
- Define custom hierarchies that are relevant to the business
- Ensure universes are regularly reviewed with the business and continuously improved
- Provide shortcuts for the end-users, such as predefined filters and date objects already expanded (Year, Quarter, Month)
Technical Focus
- Define measures to use SQL aggregation functions as well as project aggregation functions
- Don’t allow Cartesian products to be generated
- Resolve any SQL traps
- Utilise contexts and aliases to resolve loops
- Put comments in your universe where it adds value
- Add development release notes in a hidden class with an object per release
Performance Focus
- Do a performance check after user and technical focus has been achieved
- Leverage performance increases by using:
- Tune the database connection(s)
- Index awareness
- Aggregation navigation
- Shortcut joins
- Avoid derived tables or views that are not materialised
I’m looking forward to finding out more in Milan! See you there.
~ Bridget
