Dan English's BI Blog: PerformancePoint

PerformancePoint Server - Monitoring & Analytics Tech Night Recording

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:09:29 GMT

A couple weeks back I did a Tech Night at the Magenic Minneapolis office. When I was using the MS BI VPC 6 it froze up on me quite a bit and I am thinking this was because I was using Live Meeting and sharing my desktop because I performed the presentation over the weekend and since then without any issues. I created a screencast of the entire presentation and uploaded it for everyone to check out to MSN videos (soapbox). I did the recording five times and picked the best one out of the five. I would do it a sixth time, but I don't think I will ever be completely satisfied with the recording, so I finally gave in and uploaded one.

I hope everyone finds it helpful. I go over an overview of the PPS 2007 product and a demonstration of using the Monitoring & Analytics portion which is based off the example by Kevin Goff, Microsoft MVP, taken from the Mar/Apr 2008 issue of Code magazine here.

Video: PerformancePoint Server - Monitoring & Analytics Tech Night

All of the files used for the demonstration can be found here. The files that are available include the presentation (PDF format), the Entire PSS Download sample files (including some readme instructions -- 2 parts to download), and the video if you want to download it (2 parts to download). I couldn't upload the video to YouTube because it was too long and apparently you need a director account to perform a large upload. The presentation was done prior to the release of PPS SP1, so the filter improvements will not be seen in this video. For information in regards to SP1 or to the download links check out the PerformancePoint Team Blog here.

Book Review - The Rational Guide To Planning with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:54:43 GMT

Just finished another book by Nick Barclay and Adrian Downes titled The Rational Guide To Planning with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007. This book was a quick read and very informative. This covers the third portion of the PerformancePoint Server product, Planning. This was another excellent read and a great addition to the other book they wrote, The Rational Guide To Planning with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007. It is concise and has really good tech tips, notes, and caution items. This book basically included a HOL to walk you through a proof-of-concept using the AdventureWorksDW data. It tells you how to install the software, setup the planning application and models, populate the staging and application databases with the included scripts and examples, add business rules, create form templates (and make them dynamic based on system parameters), and more. The bonus chapters wrap-up the exercise pushing the results to the monitoring and analysis portion of PerformancePoint Server to complete the cycle and tie everything together.

After reading their book I really feel comfortable with what the planning portion provides and have a complete understanding of how to setup the product and populate the databases. The examples for scripts that Nick and Adrian provide were very helpful (and it is always interesting to see how other people write their T-SQL and MDX statements). They explain the tables and stored procedures that are setup in the databases that you can utilize to get information out and how everything relates. I could go on-and-on about the book because it was jam packed with information (and it was only 250 pages long -- plus the bonus chapters that you can download and read).

The content in the book is right on and the examples are very thorough and cover nearly every portion of the application to some extent (in some areas they simply refer you to the documentation since they cannot cover everything in as much detail as they would like). Obviously this book could have been at least three times the size to cover everything in detail, but Nick and Adrian include all of the necessary information needed to use the software. I would give this book a 5 out of 5 stars. I would definitely recommend adding this book to your collection. Check out my review on their other book for PerformancePoint Server here.

The Rational Guide To Planning with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 (Rational Guides)
by Adrian Downes, Nick Barclay

Read more about this book...

Book Review - The Rational Guide To Monitoring and Analyzing with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 01:56:11 GMT

Just got done wrapping up another book today and finished the book by Nick Barclay and Adrian Downes titled The Rational Guide To Monitoring and Analyzing with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007. This book was also a quick read once I dived back into it; I took a short break over the holidays and read a few fiction books. This covers two of the three portions of the PerformancePoint Server product (Monitoring and Analyzing). This is an excellent read and I loved the format. The Rational Guides are typically under 300 pages and this one was 250, so it does not drag out like some books. It is concise and has really good tech tips, notes, and caution items. There is also bonus material to download that includes a list of additional resources, additional chapters, and the examples so you can follow along with the book.

Nick and Adrian pointed out a few bugs, if you want to call them that, that are included in the RTM of the product. One in regards to adding more than one target metric for a KPI and the other in regards to getting strategy maps to accept multiple features. The additional target metrics will be added with a calculation property of No Value instead of Default and in order to setup strategy maps to accept multiple filters you need to modify the workspace XML file and change the AcceptsMultipleFilterLinks value for the EndPoint.

The content in the book is right on and the examples are just not your basic ‘Hello World’ ones either. I would give this book a 5 out of 5 stars. I would definitely recommend adding this book to your collection and I can’t wait to read their other book The Rational Guide To Planning with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007.

The Rational Guide To Monitoring and Analyzing with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 (Rational Guides)
by Nick Barclay, Adrian Downes

Read more about this book...

Book Review - Business Intelligence with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 18:30:02 GMT

I just finished reading Craig Utley's book titled Business Intelligence with Microsoft Office PerfomancePoint Server 2007. This is a really quick read and it is a really good resource for someone that is not familiar with the product and is wondering what is included. This starts out with a quick introduction to business intelligence and then dives into the product and talks about the two main components, Monitoring and Analyzing along with Planning. If you are not familiar with ProClarity there is a good section in the book explaining the majority of the reporting options (grids, charts, decomposition trees, perspective charts, and performance maps) within ProClarity and how they work.

The book also explains how to configure the dashboard and utilize filters to be able to dynamically change the data within the scorecard, charts, and reports. There is a chapter in regards to deployment and how to properly configure the different Windows services. At the end of the book it discusses Excel PivotTables and PivotCharts and how to use SSRS to report against a cube.

Overall I would probably give the book a 4 on a 1 to 5 scale (5 being the highest rating). There are some grammatical mistakes, but no technical mistakes that I saw. I didn't like having to flip between pages to view the screenshots that were being explained throughout the reading. It seemed like the majority of the images were always on the next page which is always a pain when you are reading a book. This is a really introductory book in regards to the PerformancePoint Server product (no deep dives in regards to the technology), but it goes through each portion of the product and explains how they all work. I also thought that the book was a little overpriced (49.99 retail, but Amazon has it listed for 31.49) for the content, but I would definitely recommend it if you want to get up-to-speed with how the product works and what functionality you get.

Business Intelligence with Microsoft® Office PerformancePoint Server 2007
by Craig Utley

Read more about this book...

Downloadable books for PerformancePoint Server (PPS) 2007

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:54:19 GMT

Just read about these in one of the blog postings that I read. These books have been posted on the TechNet site for download (Word documents). It is nice that they have provided this content in a printable format. These are just parts of the entire PerformancePoint library content on TechNet.

PerformancePoint Server 2007 Planning & Architecture Guide (1.33 MB) -

This book provides detailed information about Microsoft PerformancePoint Planning and Monitoring Server 2007 client and server architecture, and addresses topics essential to planning a PerformancePoint Server deployment in a large enterprise environment.

PerformancePoint Server Operations Guide (3.15 MB) -

This book provides prescriptive information for maintaining and performing the daily operations of Microsoft PerformancePoint Planning and Monitoring Server 2007.

Deployment Guide for PerformancePoint Server 2007 (1.11 MB) -

This book provides prescriptive information for planning and deploying Microsoft PerformancePoint Planning and Monitoring Server 2007

Online PerformancePoint Server (PPS) 2007 Training

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 02:04:14 GMT

If you haven't had a chance to check it out yet there is some free training available online (videos and downloadable slides). In order to download the workbooks you might be prompted to install the latest version of the .NET Framework (3.5). If I recall correctly, this install required a reboot on my laptop. Here is what is available in regards to training and I add the duration of the videos so you can plan accordingly:

Building a planning budgeting or forecasting application

Module 1: Business integration (29:20) video | workbook

Module 2: Architecting a PPS 2007 planning application (39:20) video | workbook

Module 3: Fundamentals of a planning application (19:22) video | workbook

Module 4: Building business models and data dimensions (44:04) video | workbook

Module 5: Data Loading (22:15) video | workbook

Module 6: Managing roles and security in a planning application (16:51) video | workbook

Module 7: Fundamentals of the Excel add-in for PPS 2007 (26:14) video | workbook

Module 8: Embedding rules and calculations into a planning application (25:53) video | workbook

Module 9: Planning process management and workflows (19:06) video | workbook

Building a scorecard, dashboard, or analysis application

Module 10: Fundamentals of monitoring and analyzing data with PPS 2007 (19:40) video | workbook

Module 11: Fundamentals of dashboarding, scorecarding and analytics (33:05) video | workbook

Module 12: PPS 2007 elements for monitoring and analysis (1:13:55) video | workbook

Module 13: Building dashboards with PPS 2007 (21:27) video | workbook

Module 14: Managing security in dashboards, scorecards and analytic (15:44) video | workbook

PerformancePoint Server MS Beta Exam 71-556

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 11:04:06 GMT

PerformancePoint Server MS Beta Exam: Now Available until December 31st! (General Release will be in early 2008)

Exam Name = TS: Microsoft(R) Office PerformancePoint™ Server 2007, Applications
Exam Beta Number = 71-556
Prometric Promo Code = TSPPS

Registration Information

You must register at least 24 hours prior to taking the exam.
Please use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: TSPPS
Receiving this invitation does not guarantee you a seat in the beta; we recommend that you register immediately.

To register in North America, please call:

• Prometric: (800) 755-EXAM (800-755-3926)

Outside the U.S./Canada, please contact:

• Prometric: http://www.register.prometric.com/ClientInformation.asp

Topics covered in this exam include:

Configuring Dimensions

Configure properties of predefined dimensions
Configure the time dimension
Configure a member property
Populate dimensions and member sets
Update dimension members and member set, and member properties

Configuring Models

Create a PPS model
Configure the current period
Configure model and dimension usage within sites
Transfer data between models

Configuring Business Roles and Process Management

Configure business roles
Configure security for users
Configure assignments
Configure an approval structure

Developing Business Rules

Develop an assignment rule
Develop a definition rule
Develop an allocation rule
Configure template rules
Configure rule execution

Building Excel Add-In Forms and Reports

Build an Excel Add-In report
Configure an Excel Add-In report as a form
Configure report filters
Format an Excel Add-In report

Developing Dashboards

Create a report by using the Dashboard Designer
Add a data source connection
Add a new Web page report
Configure a KPI by using Dashboard Designer
Create a scorecard
Build a dashboard

Installing PerformancePoint Server

Install the monitoring and planning services
Configure a PerformancePoint application
Configure the PerformancePoint server
Assign users to administrator roles

PerformancePoint Server Team Vision Video

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:54:20 GMT

Check it out on the MSN Video site -

Video: PerformancePoint Server Team Video