Currently we have two different data warehouses installed - both based upon Oracle and Cognos. At this stage the majority of reports are still being created by members of the IT department.
The latest implementation was the responsibility of an external organisation and it was therefore necessary to create full specifications for each of the reports. However this does necessitate an excessive number of pages of documentation.
My work on another (Access) project had similar reporting requirements and my aim was to reduce the amount of paperwork required to specify each report. To this end I attempted to define the requirements using a simplified format based upon Excel.
This spreadsheet included columns :-
1) Column - a (sequential) number indicating the position
2) Data Field - naming the data item required for this col.
3) Heading - the text to be used as heading for this col.
4) Level - the (nesting) level of this data item
5) Manipulation - processing which is applied to this item
6) Notes - further detail regarding the column contents
[Unfortunately it is not particularly practical to provide examples in this thread; however, if required, these can be provided directly be e-mail]
My view is that it is probably only necessary to obtain sufficient detail to create the initial 'prototype' report image and then sit down with the user to refine the final format. [If I can develop a successful solution, I would expect to upgrade the whole 'mechanism' to work in Access]
I do not feel I have yet got a satisfactory format (it needs to be more business focused and probably also needs to be more flexible) so I would be interested to hear from anyone who has tried to tackle this problem, i.e. the need to have a more abbreviated way of defining the report requirements.
The latest implementation was the responsibility of an external organisation and it was therefore necessary to create full specifications for each of the reports. However this does necessitate an excessive number of pages of documentation.
My work on another (Access) project had similar reporting requirements and my aim was to reduce the amount of paperwork required to specify each report. To this end I attempted to define the requirements using a simplified format based upon Excel.
This spreadsheet included columns :-
1) Column - a (sequential) number indicating the position
2) Data Field - naming the data item required for this col.
3) Heading - the text to be used as heading for this col.
4) Level - the (nesting) level of this data item
5) Manipulation - processing which is applied to this item
6) Notes - further detail regarding the column contents
[Unfortunately it is not particularly practical to provide examples in this thread; however, if required, these can be provided directly be e-mail]
My view is that it is probably only necessary to obtain sufficient detail to create the initial 'prototype' report image and then sit down with the user to refine the final format. [If I can develop a successful solution, I would expect to upgrade the whole 'mechanism' to work in Access]
I do not feel I have yet got a satisfactory format (it needs to be more business focused and probably also needs to be more flexible) so I would be interested to hear from anyone who has tried to tackle this problem, i.e. the need to have a more abbreviated way of defining the report requirements.