OBIEE Technical Conference: Dashboard Development Project Overview

1. OBIEE Technical Conference Getting Started with a Dashboard Development Project Theresa May

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

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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?

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. Dashboard Prototyping Process

18. Dashboard Prototyping Process

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. Questions?

24. Contact • OBIEE Technical Conference:http://polydata.calpoly.edu/dashboards/obiee_conf/index.html • Email: polydata@calpoly.edu