MicroStrategy Best Practices 3

[Ashimmalik]

Hello, I am knew to MicroStrategy and would like to gather information on MicroStrategy best practices. Would anyone be willing to help me out?

Directly, I would like assistance with the following:
- naming conventions
- architecture design issues
- integration with third party applications
- database preferences
- metadata management
- project skill requirements

Thank you in advance. Your help is most helpful.

 

[JRO061601]

Does anyone want to do Ashimmalik's job for him? Anyone? Any takers? Come one, no one? I didn't think so.

Dude, either take a class or hire a MicroStrategy consultant. You've got to be kidding with this post.

Yours most helpfully,

JRO061601

 

[Ashimmalik]

JRO061601,

I apologise.

We have Microstrategy 7.1.4 installed and we purchased dekstops and one server. Our database is in SQL Server and about 20 GB. I am to be the application owner for the MicroStategy project and would like to know how many projects we can have.

Ashim

 

[JRO061601]

You can have as many projects as your little heart desires. And before you post any more questions, please remember to RTFM first.

 

[chael]

Ashim - as far as Best Practices, that is a pretty wide open subject. Really, best practices are project and client specific. You don't have a very large MicroStrategy project right now, it seems (with only one server). Off the bat I'd guess you are just getting started.

Ideally you should have at least a development project and then one has finalized objects in it. There is an application that you may or may not have purchased called Object Manager that can allow you to transport reports, metrics, filters, tables etc. from one project to another.

Take a look at the MicroStrategy tutorial project and the getting started manuals -- they will serve as a good reference for you.

When you hit a real stumbling block maybe then you will want to hire JRO061601 or some other consultant. The MicroStrategy knowledge base, to which you should have been given a username and pwd, has a lot of helpful technotes. If you have a maintenance agreement (you should) then you can ask the TS engineers to help you out. They are pretty good.

As far as project differentiation goes, I would suggest that you break projects out into different areas, such as HR, Sales, Etc. The golden rule is to keep the data models simple, if possible.

Anyone else want to weigh in on this topic?

Chael

 

[510diva]

This is not a Tutorial

 

[Ashimmalik]

510 diva, the tutorial is come with microstrategy installation. It is a project. Is called MicroStrategy Tutorial.

Do you know, are more best practise recommendations available?

 

[chael]

AShimmalik, what planet are you from?

 

[dmcmunn]

I have used a few simple-minded conventions that have helped me organize objects / projects.

1. Attributes: If you have a lot (200+) attributes in your project, create a separate folder for each business dimension, activity or event (named accordingly) and place related attributes in each.

2. Develop new objects in a work or task folder, such as My Reports. After developing new objects or groups of objects beyond the SQL "smoke test" stage, always file your objects away in the corresponding object type folders. This seems like a lot of pain at first, but having objects of various types all over the place makes constant use of the Search tool a much bigger pain in the digital arse!

3. Try to establish business person definitions for as many of your objects as possible...then adhere to those names whenever possible...you never know when you may be asked to turn over an ad-hoc reporting capability to the business analyst for an existing project.

4. DON'T NAME DIFFERENT OBJECTS THE SAME THING!!! Just because this functionality is supported by the tool doesn't mean you should use it. The project doesn't care if you use long names and it can make your life easier when promoting objects from project to project.
4a. If you copy a production object into another folder to prototype or test...call it something different...like BUBBAs TEST OBJECT, just in case another developer is using the Search tool and may snag your object and put it into his report thinking it was the production version!!!

5. As in most engineering efforts, organization, discipline and consistency are essential to a repeatable, predictable delivery. SOOO...It's easier to stay organized than to get organized. Trying to organize a 4-5000 object project developed by 4 or 5 developers over the course of several months will make you very old and may cause liver damage. Develop your standards, be firm but flexible and open to a better way if a case can be made for it.

6. Remember MicroStrategy is NOT a group development environment. It takes a good deal of communication and clear work segmentation to keep a team of developers from turning a solid project into a giant bowl of fish entrails.

7. Make it a habit to periodically compare MicroStrategy's snapshot of the physical database schema metadata with the actual database metadata to make sure unanticipated executive demos don't produce unanticipated lack of income due to an uncommunicated physical database change.


Best,
Don "Windy Won" McMunn
dmcmunn@ipcdesigns.com

 

[Ashimmalik]

I do not know what planet I am from, although I was bornin in India!

Thank kindly for many comments. In experiencing the use of microstrategies I have found object manager to be of much use.

how to set the deafult action to replace though?

 

[JRO061601]

I can't answer your object manager question, but I can tell you that you are from the planet Earth. Although I suspect if I ever actually met you, I might question that myself. You should really get out from behind your computer every now and then. Just a friendly suggestion.

 

[amanx]

Go under object manager -> Tools ->
Object Manager Preferences

Select the tab for Conflict Resolution - Near the bottom right you'll see a button 'Set Default Actions'.

Is this what you were looking for?

 

[NaughtyVicar]

Ashmimmalik;
A word of caution about Object Manager - Be VERY careful in what you do with that tool. There is no undo button. If you delete an object (such as a report, metric, user, project) it is GONE. There is no way to go back if you make an Oops error.

If I can offer one simple "best practices" it would be to BACK UP YOUR METADATA.

Have fun!

Rich