Lesson 1: Create a multi-project report from a sample report

In this tutorial you will learn to customize a report so that it depicts consolidated information for multiple projects.

Such consolidation helps senior managers get an overview of the health of projects handled by them. It helps them identify areas that demand special attention, and thereby direct management bandwidth toward priority areas.

The ‘Defect status and distribution’ reports helps track patterns in defects, which can be used to take corrective action for reducing defect resolution time and the number of defects. When consolidated for projects the report is a powerful tool for group managers to analyze the overall health of their group.

Create a copy

The first step is to create a copy of the report you want to customize.
  1. To create a copy, click More… .
  2. In the perform an action page, click copy copy icon.
  3. In the save as a copy page, enter Defect status and distribution _1 in the name field.
  4. Under location click My folders and click OK.

Open Report Studio

You need to open Report studio to customize the report element properties . In IBM® Cognos Connection, to open Report Studio, click the Report Studio link either on the same line as the report or you can also select Report studio from the launch drop down.

Enable selection of multiple projects

You need to select more than one value in a prompt. For example, you have a prompt for which users must select a project. You need to modify the prompt so that you can select more than one project.

If you enable multiple selections, the Auto-Submit property is always set to no.

  1. On the Explorer bar click Page Explorer, and click Prompt Pages.Page Explorer
  2. Double-click Prompt Page1.
  3. Click the Project control. This is a Value Prompt control that shows up in the Properties pane and toolbox.
  4. In the Properties pane, set the Multi-Select property to Yes.
  5. On the Explorer bar, click Page Explorer, and then Report Pages.
  6. Double-click Report Page 1.
  7. Click the Project prompt control.
  8. In the Properties pane, set the Multi-Select property to Yes.
  9. On the Explorer bar click Query Explorer. The report has four queries, one for each of the three charts (Defects by State, Defects by Severity, and Defects by Priority), and one to select the project list.
  10. Click the query DefectByState.
  11. Double-click the filter expression associated with the Project prompt.
  12. Change the operator [Project]=?Project? to [Project] in (?Project?).
  13. Click Validate Expression, and click OK.
  14. Repeat steps 10 to 12 for the other three queries.

Add a Prompt Button

To run the customized report you need to add a prompt button.
  1. Select the prompts page in the page explorer.
  2. In the Insertable Objects pane, on the Toolbox tab, drag Prompt Button prompt icon to the work area.Insertable Objects
  3. Click the prompt icon and, in the Properties pane, set the Type property to Finish. This will enable you to run the report, because in this case Auto-submit is set to No.

Select multiple projects

You are now ready to generate a report showing defect status and distribution for multiple projects.

  1. From the Run menu, click Run Report - HTML.
  2. In the Parameters page, use the Ctrl key to select Auction, Bid management, and Account opening from the Project list
  3. Click Finish.
  4. Validate your report to ensure that it contains no errors. From the Tools menu, click Validate Report. A message box appears indicating whether any errors were found in the report.
  5. Verify that the report correctly contains data from multiple projects before saving.
  6. Save your report to preserve the modifications you made. In the File menu, click Save, or Save As to save a copy of the report under a different name.

Lesson checkpoint

Consolidation of projects in this manner provides managers with a top-level view of groups of projects. They can focus on the macro picture, identify issues that affect the group in general, and then drill down into individual projects if necessary. For more information about how to customize reports see IBM Cognos Connection User Guide and Report Studio Professional Authoring Guide.