Wiley Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 Aug 2008 ISBN 0470229071 pdf
Microsoft
Office
PerformancePoint
Server 2007 Elaine Andersen Bruno Aziza
Joey Fitts Steve Hoberecht Tim Kashani Wiley Publishing, Inc. Microsoft
Office
PerformancePoint
Server 2007
Microsoft
Office
PerformancePoint
Server 2007 Elaine Andersen Bruno Aziza
Joey Fitts Steve Hoberecht Tim Kashani Wiley Publishing, Inc.
Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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1. Microsoft PerformancePoint server. 2. Performance — Management — Computer programs. 3. Business — Computer programs.
I. Andersen, Elaine, 1971- HF5548.4.M5257M53 2008 658.500285’55 — dc22 2008026306
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To Mom and Dad, for your constant support and love. And to the rest
of the gang: Camille, Darlene, Gary, Emily, Melissa, Jordan, Brandon,
Frederic, Jodi, Greg, Emily, Aidan, and Mason. You’re what makes
it all worthwhile.
— Elaine Andersen
`A Mamie, Papy Jo et Maman, `a ma femme et mes enfants — merci de
votre soutien constant et de votre amour inconditionnel.
— Bruno Aziza
First — to my wife Juliana and daughter Sophia, te amo muito! As always,
to my family — Dad, Mom, Bob, and John — my love and deep
appreciation for your continued support! I’d also like to thank my dear
friends who have inspired me to take on bigger challenges and also to
be a better person. Loke, Jake, Bruno, Ben, Eric, Brandy, John, Michele,
Mikey, Paulo, Anderson, Maria Eliza, and the numerous friends who
brighten my life — I have benefited from knowing such genuinely
good-hearted and fun people. My time with close friends is precious, and
I hope you know how much it means to me. Thank you!
— Joey Fitts
To my wife, Jannette, without whom I wouldn’t have the
support and foundation to challenge myself. To my wonderful children,
Katie and Henry, who ensure there are never any dull moments. To my
parents, Clint and Donna, sister, Lani, and brother, Randy, from whom I
get nothing but support and encouragement. To all my colleagues on the
PerformancePoint team who continue to inspire me by your passion and
dedication to the product. I am grateful to work with such a talented team.
— Steve Hoberecht
To my loving wife Pamela and laughing son Timothy, who remind
me daily that some things go way beyond anything we can plan,
monitor, and analyze.
— Tim Kashani
About the Authors Elaine Andersen
is a senior program manager lead on the Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server team at Microsoft. For the past two years, she has focused on the analytic and dashboard features of PerformancePoint, working with an experienced and talented team of program managers, developers, and test engineers.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Elaine was a program manager for ProClar- ity Corporation, a software company that developed business intelligence (BI) products for the Microsoft platform. During her 6 years at ProClarity, Elaine contributed to the ProClarity Desktop Professional, ProClarity Ana- lytics Server, and ProClarity Live Server product lines as both a program manager and technical writer.
Elaine holds a master of arts degree in Technical Communication from Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, and a bachelor of arts degree in English from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
Bruno Aziza
has led marketing, sales, and operations teams at various technology firms, including Apple, Business Objects, and Decathlon. Bruno has worked and lived in France, the UK, Germany, and the United States, and holds a master’s degree in business and economics from three European institutions.
He currently works on Microsoft’s global business intelligence strategy and is the coauthor of Drive Business Performance: Enabling a Culture of Intelligent
Execution.
Joey Fitts
has consulted at over 25 of the Fortune 500 companies, guest lectured in Harvard’s Executive Education programs, raised over $16 million in venture capital, and served on the board of advisors for InterVivos and the Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA).
viii About the Authors
He currently works on Microsoft’s global business intelligence strategy and is the coauthor of Drive Business Performance: Enabling a Culture of Intelligent
Execution.
Steve Hoberecht
is a senior program manager lead on the Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server team at Microsoft. He is responsible for the features and functionality of the application components targeted towards planning, reporting, and consolidation scenarios. Steve also supports the development and deployment activities of early adopter customers and partners.
Steve has been with Microsoft for 15 years and has occupied roles from finance to software quality to program management. Prior to his current role, he was test manager for data access components in Microsoft SQL Server. Steve began his career at Microsoft in the finance organization, where he occupied a variety of roles in accounting, operations, management reporting, and analysis.
Steve attended the University of Arizona and holds a bachelor of science degree in computer science from Seattle Pacific University.
Tim Kashani
is the founder and CEO of IT Mentors, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. The company is a leading provider of technology consulting, custom training services, and learning content production. Tim and his team of technical professionals help organizations understand and apply Microsoft technology with the goal of increasing business productivity.
Tim was one of the first Microsoft Certified Trainers in the world. He also holds a bachelor of sciences degree in information and computer sciences and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of California at Irvine. Tim’s 22 years of experience in the training and consulting field have taken him to clients all over the world, including Asia, Europe, and many parts of the United States.
Tim has been involved in assessing the technical training needs of some of the country’s major financial corporations and helping them implement corpo- rate technology training universities. In addition to training, he has provided project coaching, architecture review, and project support to the chief informa- tion officers and senior engineers of these organizations. Tim’s balanced blend of technical and business skills allows him to provide meaningful technology advice to CEOs, senior executives, and business leaders.
For the last five years, Tim has worked with Microsoft to develop and deploy their business intelligence offerings. He and his team created the official training material for Business Scorecard Manager 2005 and PerformancePoint Server 2007. They strive to educate the world on the value of the Microsoft BI platform.
Credits Executive Editor Vice President and Executive Group Publisher
Bob Elliott Richard Swadley
Development Editor Vice President and
Kenyon Brown
Executive Publisher
Joseph B. Wikert
Production Editor Project Coordinator, Cover
Dassi Zeidel Lynsey Stanford
Copy Editor Proofreader
Foxxe Editorial Services Kathryn Duggan
Indexer Editorial Manager
Robert Swanson Mary Beth Wakefield
Cover Image Production Manager
George Diebold/
Tim Tate Solus Photography/Veer
Acknowledgments
Many people contributed to the success of this product and this book. The PerformancePoint Server research and development, marketing, and sales teams combine great experience, unsurpassed passion, and amazing drive to do the right thing for customers.
To Rachel Vigier, without whom this book would never have been written. To Ola Ekdahl for his deep technical experience and without whom IT
Mentors would be far more boring (although we would have three more laptops and several more cell phones). Finally, to all the members of IT Mentors who helped (or were forced) to read draft after draft.
Steve Pontello and Alyson Powell Erwin are genuine experts in the world of analytics; they effortlessly blend the real world of business and decision mak- ing with the technical complexities of Multidimensional Expressions (MDX). Without their guidance, enthusiasm, and direction, we would all have had a much steeper mountain to climb. Many thanks to both of them for their always useful, always usable MDX samples and recommendations.
Much gratitude to Greg Bernhardt for his design expertise and tireless advocacy for elegant and usable designs. He inspires exceptional work and asks nothing less of himself.
Thanks to Josh Zimmerman, our security guru, for his patience with those of us who really have no clue how it works. And to Shannon House for her insight into how customers can be successful, and other valuable insights gained in the trenches. And to Rex Parker for his dashboard layout guidance and blog entries.
A special appreciation for the leadership and early vision of Lewis Levin, who began performance management efforts at Microsoft. To Peter Bull, who has continued to carry forward and develop the vision and ensures that the
xii Acknowledgments
product delivers it. Peter has been instrumental in defining what is needed and why. To Oleg Ovanesyan for his counsel and help in relating core technical issues to business concepts and key stakeholders. Many insights and much inquiry into key aspects of a business application from a business user’s perspective came from Eric Danas and Greg Parrott. To Mark Yang for the great partnership in delivering on the vision and the great debate and discussion of possible solutions.
Thanks for technical reviews from Patrick Baumgartner, Shelby Goerlitz, Nathan Halstead, Parul Manek, Srini Nallapareddy, Scott Sebelsky, Barry Tousley, and Roberta Vork. We sincerely appreciate all your help with content accuracy and guidance on communication.
To Michael Knightley, Elizabeth Smith, and Trevor Jones from Thorogood Associates for their contributions on how to effectively utilize partners and approach a performance management solution. We greatly appreciate the insights their over 20 years in the industry provided and are grateful for their contribution to this book.
Finally, thank you Bill Baker, Bob Lokken, Russ Whitney, Stephen Rauch, Kirk Haselden, Thierry D’Hers, Corey Hulen, Kevin Berens, Leif Brenne, Chen-I Lim, Melanie Swarner, Ramesh Arimilli, Carlos Veiga De Vincenzo, and, of course, Christine Bishop, Scott Allen, Ben Green, Tony Robinson, Tony Crowhurst, Nick Barclay, and Adrian Downes, and Guy Weismantel.
Contents at a Glance Foreword xxvii Introduction xxxi
Part I Performance Management and Microsoft PerformancePoint Server
1 Chapter 1 Microsoft’s Performance Management Strategy
3 Chapter 2 Microsoft PerformancePoint Server Fundamentals
15 Chapter 3 Setting Up and Configuring PerformancePoint Servers
39 Part II PerformancePoint Monitoring and Analytics
59 Chapter 4 PerformancePoint Monitoring and Analytics Architecture: Overview
61 Chapter 5 Implementing Scorecards and KPIs
89 Chapter 6 Developing Effective Analytic Views 119
Chapter 7 Creating Effective Dashboards 157 Chapter 8 Supplementing Dashboards with Reports 191 Chapter 9 Implementing Security Controls 211 Part III PerformancePoint Planning 217 Chapter 10 Planning Overview 221 Chapter 11 Application Components 239 Chapter 12 Business Rules 259
Chapter 13 Data Integration 277
Chapter 14 Reports and Forms 291
xiv Contents at a Glance
Chapter 15 Security and Roles 309
Chapter 16 Data Process 319Chapter 17 Deployment and Migration 329 Part IV Successfully Engaging Users in Monitoring, Analytics, and Planning
341
Chapter 18 Bringing Monitoring, Analytics, and Planning Together 343
Chapter 19 Planning and Maintaining Successful Dashboards 367 Chapter 20 Planning Application Development 377 Index 395Contents Foreword xxvii Introduction xxxi
Part I Performance Management and Microsoft PerformancePoint Server
1 Chapter 1 Microsoft’s Performance Management Strategy
3 Traditional Approaches to Business Intelligence
3 Personal, Team, and Organizational BI
5 Functionality
6 An Integrated Solution
7 The Economic Model
8 A Simple Formula
8 PM Is Good
8 IWs Are Everywhere
8 Increase ROI, Decrease TCO
9 The Information Worker — The Core of Microsoft’s Business
11 Summary
13 Notes
13 Chapter 2 Microsoft PerformancePoint Server Fundamentals
15 Trusting Your Data — The Business Intelligence Platform
15 Personal BI and Individual Productivity
17 Team BI Tools and Collaboration
17 Corporate BI and Alignment
18 How Does the PerformancePoint Server Story Come Together?
19 The Analysts
20 The Contributors
20 The Executives
21
xvi Contents Flexibility, Security, and Auditability
22 Collaborative, User-Friendly, and Contextual
23 Aligned, Actionable, and Accountable
24 Monitor, Analyze, and Plan
24 Monitor
24 End-User Experience and Information Portability
25 Information Consistency
26 Collaboration and Unstructured Information
27 Analyze
28 Analytical Paradox
29 Aligned and Thin Analytics
29 Analytics Made Easy: Cross-Drilling
30 Web and Office Integration
31 Planning
32 The Modeler
32 The End-User Experience
34 Performance Management Is More Than Just Numbers
35 Summary
37 Notes
37 Chapter 3 Setting Up and Configuring PerformancePoint Servers
39 Monitoring Server
39 Hardware Prerequisites
39 Software Prerequisites
40 System Requirements
40 Installing and Configuring Monitoring Server
43 Authentication Options
45 Application Pool User Identity
45 Connection Per User
45 Kerberos
45 Custom Data
46 Secure Socket Layer
46 Microsoft SharePoint Server Settings
46 Excel Services Settings
46 Configure Root Site
47 Reporting Services Settings
47 ProClarity Analytics Server Settings
48 Apply the PAS Hotfix
48 Best Practice Monitoring Server Installation
48 Planning Server
49 Hardware Prerequisites
49 Software Prerequisites
49 System Requirements
51 Installing and Configuring Planning Server
54 Authentication Options
55 Global Administrator
55 Service Identity
55
Contents xvii Kerberos
56 Secure Socket Layer
56 Installing the Planning Clients
56 Excel Add-In Client
56 Business Modeler Client
57 Best Practice Planning Server Installation
57 Summary
57 Part II PerformancePoint Monitoring and Analytics
59 Chapter 4 PerformancePoint Monitoring and Analytics Architecture: Overview
61 Product Overview
61 Collaborative Performance Management
62 Pervasive Performance Management
64 System Architecture
65 Dashboard Designer
66 Consumer
68 Monitoring Server
69 Deployment Topology
70 Application Concepts
71 Dashboards
71 Scorecards
72 Report Views
74 Scorecards
75 Analytic Charts and Analytic Grids
75 Strategy Maps
76 Excel Services
76 Reporting Services
77 Trend Analysis
77 Filters
77 Custom MDX
78 Time Intelligence
78 Custom Properties
78 Data Sources
80 Analysis Server Data Sources
80 SharePoint List
80 SQL Server Table
81 Excel 2007
81 Excel Services
81 ODBC Connections
81 Fixed Values
81 Workflow Concepts
82 Creating Content — Dashboard Designer
83 Step 1: Create a Workspace
83 Step 2: Create Elements
83 Step 3: Configure Elements
83
xviii Contents Step 4: Configure Scorecard
88 Notes
Step 2: Identify the In-Band Value (IBV) 108 Step 3: Calculate the Normalized Band by Value (NBV) 108 Scoring Rollup to Objectives 109 Fine-Tuning Rollup Types 109
KPI Banding 106 Step 1: Calculate the Band by Value (BBV) 107
104 KPI Types and Calculations 105 Standard KPIs (Leaf Level) 105 Standard KPIs (Non-Leaf-Level) 106 Objective KPIs 106 Best Practices Calculations 106
99 Key Performance Indicator Components 101 Key Performance Indicators and Data Sources 102 Storing Key Performance Indicators 103 Best Practices KPIs 104 Creating KPIs
98 What Are Key Performance Indicators?
97 Scorecard Key Performance Indicators
94 Even a Simple Scorecard Provides Value
93 Balanced Scorecard: Scorecard, Methodology, or Both?
90 Scorecards and Performance Management Methodologies
89 What Is a Scorecard?
89 Scorecards: Distributing Metrics to the Masses
88 Chapter 5 Implementing Scorecards and KPIs
87 Summary
83 Step 5: Configure Dashboard
87 Analyzing
86 Viewing
86 Consuming Content — SharePoint
86 Deploy
85 Publish
85 Refresh
85 Update
85 Deploying Content — Dashboard Designer
84 Dashboards
84 Reports
84 Data Sources
84 Step 6: Deploy Dashboard
KPI Weighting on the Scorecard 109 What Are Indicators? 110 Creating Indicators 111 Fine-Tuning KPIs with Thresholds 111 Creating Custom Indicators 112 Best Practices Indicators 114
Contents xix Creating Additional Actual and Target Values 115 Creating Trend Values 115 Best Practices Trends 117 Summary
117 Notes 117
Chapter 6 Developing Effective Analytic Views 119 Understanding OLAP 120 Dimensions 120 Hierarchies 121 Lists and Sets 122 Calculations 123 Discover, Create, and Deploy 124
Translating Data into Insight 125 Creating Successful Views 125 Providing Context 128 Ensuring Relevance 128
Using PerformancePoint to Create Analytic Views 129 Placing Items in the View 130 Selecting Items for the View 134 Selecting the View Type 135 Using Advanced Visualizations 139 Using MDX Mode 141
Business Users: Gaining Insight 146 Use Filters 146 Drill Down and Drill Up 147
Drill Down To (Cross-Drilling) 149 Show Details 153 Sort 154 Export to Excel 154
Summary 155
Chapter 7 Creating Effective Dashboards 157 Successful Dashboards 157 Creating and Deploying Dashboards 159 Creating a New Dashboard 159 Managing Pages 160 Configuring Zone Layout and Size 162 Creating Interactive Dashboards Using Filters 166 Creating MDX Query Filters 170 Using Filter Link Formulas 171 Creating Time Intelligence Filters 172 Simple Time Period Specification 173 Creating Time Intelligence Filters 173 Step 1: Configure Mapping for the Data Source 174 Step 2: Apply Filters 176 Step 3: Add the Filter to the Dashboard 176 Creating Time Intelligence Post Formulas 176
xx Contents Adding Reports
177 Best Practice Reports 179 Adding Filters to Dashboard Zones 179 Enabling Filters for Analytic Grids and Charts 181 Connecting Filters to Scorecard and Reports Views 183 Using the Display Condition Option 185 Connecting Scorecard KPIs to Report Views 187 Centralizing Dashboard Elements 188 Summary
190
Chapter 8 Supplementing Dashboards with Reports 191 Reports Answer the ‘‘What?’’ Question 191 Strategy Maps
193 Designing Effective Strategy Maps 194 Creating Strategy Maps 196 Step 1: Create the Map Layout in Visio 197
Step 2: Create and Name the Strategy Map 197 Step 3: Select the Scorecard 197 Step 4: Create the Strategy Map 198 Step 5: Connect and Configure the KPIs 198 Step 6: Publish the Strategy Map 199 Step 7: Add the Strategy Map to the Dashboard 200
Excel Services 200 Step 1: Publish Excel Spreadsheets to SharePoint 200
Step 2: Create a New Report 200 Step 3: Link to the SharePoint Site 201 Step 4: Publish the Report 201 Step 5: Add the Report to the Dashboard 201
Reporting Services 203 Step 1: Publish RDL Files to SharePoint 203 Step 2: Create a New Report 204 Step 3: Link to the SharePoint Site 204 Step 4: Publish the Report 204 Step 5: Add the Report to the Dashboard 204
Trend Charts 204 Step 1: Enable DataMining in Analysis Services 206
Step 2: Configure Server Options in Dashboard Designer 206 Step 3: Create New Report 207 Step 4: Select a Scorecard and KPI 207 Step 5: Set Report Properties 207 Step 6: Publish the Report 208 Step 7: Add the Report to the Dashboard 208
Best Practices for Reports 208 Summary 208 Notes 209
Contents xxi
Chapter 9 Implementing Security Controls 211 Application-Level Security 211 Item-Level Security 214 Summary 216
Part III PerformancePoint Planning 217 Chapter 10 Planning Overview 221 Product Overview 221 Personas
221 The Business Analyst 222 The Input Contributor 222 The Dangerously Technical and Business Savvy 222 The IT Administrator 223 Application Cycle 223
System Architecture 224 Clients 224 Web Services 225 Server 225 Front-End Server
226 Back-End Server 226 Data Manager 226 Process Manager 227
Security and Administration 227 Other Services 228 Server Processing 229
Synchronous and Asynchronous Processing 229 Process Intervals 230 Data Submission Flow 230 Deployment Topology 232
Application Concepts 233 Applications 233 Model Sites 234 Model Site Considerations 235
Application Calendar 235 Time Setup 236 Calendar Views 236
Summary 237 Notes 237
Chapter 11 Application Components 239 Business Application Type Library 239 Object Types 240 Type Behavior and Interaction 240
Dimensions 241 Dimensional Modeling 241
Dimension Overview 243
xxii Contents Attributes
Linked Assumption Models 254 Properties 256 Behavior Properties 256
Allocation Rules 263 Assignment Rules 264 Definition Rules 264
263 Rule Types 263 Financial Rules 263
262 PerformancePoint Expression Language 262 Type Behavior
259 Calculation Engine Overview 259 Business Rules Defined 261 Rule Sets
258
Value Properties 257 Business Rules 257 Associations 257 Summary
252 Financial 252 Generic 253 Assumption 253 Exchange Rate 253 Model Dimensions 254
244 Membersets 244 Memberset Views 246
Models 252 Model Types
251 Intercompany 251 User-Defined Dimensions 251
250 TimeDataView 250 Users
Exchange Rate 250 Special-Case Dimensions 250 Time
Flow 249 Consolidation Method 250
System-Defined Dimensions 247 Account 247 Currency 248 Entity 248 Scenario 248 Business Process 248
Chapter 12 Business Rules
Contents xxiii Outbound Rules 264 Implementation Types 264
Rule Templates 266 Parameters and Variables 269
Parameter and Variable Types 269 Publication as Jobs 270 Rule Security
270 Financial Intelligence 272 Financial Rules
272 Currency Conversion 273 Intercompany Reconciliation 273 Eliminations
274 Financial Jobs 275 Currency Jobs 275 Reconciliation Jobs 275
Consolidation Jobs 275 Data Jobs 276 Summary
276
Chapter 13 Data Integration 277 Data Integration Architecture 278
Application Database 278 Staging Database 279 Outbound Database 280
Data Integration Process 280 Synchronization 280 Loading 280 Data Refresh 281 Application Data Lifecycle 281
Preparation 283 Dimensions and Hierarchies 283
Model Data 286 Validation 286 Performance 288 Troubleshooting 288 Summary
289
Chapter 14 Reports and Forms 291 Excel Client 291 Client Functionality 292
Add-In Menu Options 294 Caching and Offline Behavior 294 Reports
296 Jobs 297
xxiv Contents Forms and Reports 297 Matrix
298 Report Design 299 Ad Hoc Reports
299 Dynamic versus Static 300 Row and Column Intersections 304 Report Wizard
306 Summary 308
Chapter 15 Security and Roles 309
System Security 309 System Roles310 Global Administrator 310 User Administrator 310 Data Administrator 310 Modeler
311 Users 311 Application Security 311
Business Roles 312 Users and Roles 314 User Dimension 315 Data Security
315 Model Access 315 Configuring Read/Write Security 316
Security Deployment 317 Summary 318
Chapter 16 Data Process 319 Process Flow Objects 319
Definitions 320 Instances 320 Data Process Flow
320 Cycles 321 Assignments 323 Review and Approval 326
Jobs 326 Summary
327
Chapter 17 Deployment and Migration 329
Deployment and Scaling 329 Deployment 330 Web Services 331 Process Services 331Contents xxv Clients
332 Data Platform 332 Performance and Scaling 333
Data Volumes 333 Users 334 Location 334 Application Migration 335
Development 335 Testing 335 Production 336 Migration 336 Full Migration 336 Incremental Migration 337
Data Lifecycle 337 Summary 338
Part IV Successfully Engaging Users in Monitoring, Analytics, and Planning 341
Chapter 18 Bringing Monitoring, Analytics, and Planning Together 343 MAP 343 Understand Your Data 344
Putting It Together: The How To 345 Viewing the Planning Models and Dimensions 345 Viewing the Data for the Model 350 Using the Data Source in Dashboard Designer 351 Setting Security Roles for Dashboard Designer 353 Building a Planning Scorecard 354 Building New KPIs 360 Building and Deploying the Dashboard 362 Adding Filters
363 Summary 365
Chapter 19 Planning and Maintaining Successful Dashboards 367 Ten Best Practices for Deploying Performance Dashboards 367 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Deploying Performance Dashboards 369 How to Know If You Have the Ability to Build Effective Performance Dashboards 371 Take the Test 372 Your Score 373 Improve Your Results 374
Summary 376 Notes 376
xxvi Contents
Chapter 20 Planning Application Development 377 Implementation Best Practices — How to Get the Job Done 377 The Roles of Business and IT Stakeholders 378 Organizational Objectives 378 Business and IT Together 378 IT and Operational Units Organizationally Separate 379 PerformancePoint Server 2007 Planning — Changing the Paradigm
379 Solution Implementations 382 Targeted Proof of Concept — Right Scope, Right People 383 Partnering Effectively with Systems Integrators 386 How to Choose an Implementation Partner (What to Look For) 389 How to Manage an Effective Project 391 Summary
393 Index 395 Foreword
Writing a book is hard. That’s why I write book Forewords. I do know that having passion is important to writing a good book. Passion carries you the distance, through the nights and weekends required to finish the book. Passion also drives the quality and depth of the book. Your authors have passion to spare. You’ll see this and feel this as you read through Microsoft
Office PerformancePoint Server 2007.
Performance management software is a relatively recent passion at Microsoft. We started our business intelligence journey with SQL Server Analysis Services (originally called SQL Server OLAP Services) and Microsoft Excel. We started there because we feel there is a logical evolution of BI in companies. That path starts with ‘‘sound data.’’ If companies or organizations can’t provide their employees and partners with data that is clean, integrated, consistent, and fresh, they are not able to provide the foundation for good decision making. At Microsoft, SQL Server is where structured data lives.
Once you believe you have sound data, the next step on our recommended path is to focus on personal and team insights. Your employees have the best sense of what is going on at ‘‘street level’’ in your organization. They frequently have hunches about the state of the business; more than upper management, they see daily what is working and what is not working. Insights come from hunches combined with data and experience. If your people can access the sound data you have built, using a tool they already know, they will form insights from their hunches and experience. If they can share those insights with others via a platform like SharePoint, your company will grow and improve.
All along, we wanted to grow the Microsoft BI stack into the performance management arena. Beyond insight comes decision making. Companies and organizations struggle to balance the agility and creativity a platform like
xxviii Foreword
SQL Server, SharePoint, and Excel provides with accountability, alignment with strategy, and consistency with company processes and definitions. Once employees develop insights, companies want them to make sound busi- ness decisions that fit the company’s strategy and processes. Performance management is the aspect of BI that records the company’s business rules and definitions and relates business execution to the goals the company established.
We built PerformancePoint Server (PPS), the subject of this book, to provide critical performance management features in the Microsoft BI offering. PPS allows companies to manage the three key activities in performance man- agement: plan the business, monitor the execution of the plan, and analyze variances from the plan. We call this Monitor, Analyze and Plan, or MAP. The order is explained well in Drive Business Performance: ‘‘This may seem back- ward, as it may seem logical that the first capability to be developed would be planning, since a plan is crafted before it is monitored and analyzed. However, the Monitor capability is listed first because most organizations are already in motion when they begin their performance management initiatives. They
1
often first seek to have the ability to know ‘what is happening.’’’ MAP also happens to spell a word, PMA does not. . .and the key thing is to remember the three capabilities needed, not the order.
Bruno and Joey played key roles in the development and delivery of Perfor- mancePoint. Bruno helped define the mission of the product and marketing strategy; Joey helped define the alliance and go-to-market strategy, recruiting a fine stable of global service partners to deliver successful customer deploy- ments. I was lucky enough to collaborate with Joey and Bruno on this book as well as on Drive Business Performance. I have to say, I’ve not laughed so hard in a while. These guys had so much fun writing these books. Humor aside, they dedicated themselves to these two titles, and I think you’ll agree that the high quality shows it.
Steve Hoberecht has been working on Microsoft BI for quite awhile, having helped us develop the SQL BI platform and then serving as a key leader in the development of PerformancePoint and aligning BI development efforts across the company. Elaine Andersen is one of our veterans from ProClarity who has driven the continued development of industry-leading analytics through PerformancePoint. She also played a key role in managing much of the manuscript development — and the authors. Tim Kashani and his company,
IT Mentors, have helped to train the global Microsoft BI community on Microsoft’s offerings, from SQL to Business Scorecard Manager to SharePoint and now PerformancePoint Server. His team has traveled the globe with us to ensure a readied ecosystem of customers and partners.
Numerous developers, testers, and program managers worked with the authors as they developed the chapters and then later did technical reviews. I will call your attention to two chapters in particular that illustrate the excellent collaboration between the product development team and your
Foreword xxix
authors. In Chapter 19, the authors delve into best practices for implementing the monitoring and analysis phases of performance management. The vital tips and techniques come from our development team’s knowledge of the product as well as the deep experience they attained while working with over 20 early PPS adopters. Chapter 20 is the analog for the planning phase of performance management.
I’ve often been amazed by the power of passion in any endeavor. The authors had the passion to create an excellent book on PerformancePoint Server 2007. They had the endorsement and the cooperation of the team that created PPS. And they had a great sense of humor throughout. It was my pleasure to help out in the small ways that I did. Enjoy this book, and profit from it.
Bill Baker Distinguished Engineer
Microsoft Corporation, April 2008
Notes
1. Bruno Aziza and Joey Fitts, Drive Business Performance: Enabling a Culture of Intelligent Execution (Wiley, 2008).
Introduction
In late 2007, Bruno Aziza and Joey Fitts got together to write the book titled
Drive Business Performance: Enabling a Culture of Intelligent Execution (Wiley,
2008). As they were completing their text, they saw an opportunity for a second book that directly applied the concepts presented in their book with the software capabilities in Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007. They envisioned this companion book as a unique bridge between business and technology, focusing on applying the principles of performance management through the framework of a software application. Subsequently, Microsoft
Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 was born.
Who Should Read This Book
Unlike many software books, Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 focuses on the business user, the person who needs to understand how a particular technology can help his or her organization succeed by adopting the principles of performance management. Although written for business users, the book doesn’t focus exclusively on business concepts or theories. Instead, it presents the concepts needed to be successful with performance management as an integrated discussion with the capabilities of PerformancePoint Server.
Like the software itself, this approach bridges the technology and the business areas to ensure that organizations see the return on their investments in greater overall organizational accountability and alignment. We hope the benefits of this approach will be twofold: Readers will understand both the technology investments and the organizational investments they need to make to successfully implement performance management in their organization with PerformancePoint Server 2007.
xxxii Introduction
To succeed in this goal, we brought together five authors who have been with the product from its early beginnings. Each author has in-depth experi- ence with his or her area of the product, with customers, with performance management, and with enterprise-level businesses and organizations. They have seen all iterations of the product and understand the inspiration (and compromises) behind the concept, design, and implementation. They contin- ually hear from those implementing the software about how to do it right and have consolidated all that shared learning to this book.
How This Book Is Organized
This book is organized into four sections. Part I, ‘‘Performance Management and Microsoft PerformancePoint Server,’’ answers the question ‘‘Why should an organization invest in performance management with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server?’’ Chapters 1–3 highlight the insights and recom- mendations of industry experts who recognize that effective performance management is pervasive performance management — reaching everyone from the individual contributor to the executive. It concludes by providing an overview of PerformancePoint Server and how it achieves this goal.
Part II, ‘‘PerformancePoint Monitoring and Analytics,’’ focuses on answer- ing the questions ‘‘How is my organization performing?’’ and ‘‘What are the driving forces behind this performance?’’ These questions can be answered through the monitoring and analytics capabilities of PerformancePoint Server. Chapters 4–9 explain how to use performance dashboards to deliver action- able information to all users in the organization. The early chapters highlight the architecture of Monitoring Server as well as the components needed to deploy dashboards to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. These chapters also go in-depth on building scorecards, analytic views, and dashboards. The later chapters highlight additional report types and security.
Part III, ‘‘PerformancePoint Planning,’’ focuses on answering the question ‘‘How do I want my organization to perform?’’ It explains how to use the planning capabilities of PerformancePoint Server to design and deploy planning and budgeting applications. Chapters 10–14 describe the overall system and how different users interact with the application at different times during the planning cycle. These chapters also explain how to write effective business rules and design effective forms and reports to enable all users to actively contribute to the planning process using Business Modeler and Microsoft Excel. Chapters 15–17 bring these concepts together by presenting an overall workflow and deployment strategy for planning applications.
The last section of the book, Part IV, ‘‘Successfully Engaging Users in Monitoring, Analytics, and Planning,’’ provides prescriptive guidance on how to be successful with PerformancePoint Server, using recommendations and
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tools from real-world customer deployments and experiences. The information presented in Chapters 18–20 is tailored to ensure that readers fully understand the key issues for achieving a successful performance management system in their organization.
Each part can be read independently of the other parts. For example, readers who are focused on planning and budgeting applications may want to spend their time primarily in Part III. Readers who want to gain a general under- standing of performance management may start with Part I and then move to
Part IV. Readers who are interested in a general overview of PerformancePoint Server may simply read the first couple of chapters in each part. Regardless, this book provides a comprehensive, business-oriented perspective of Per- formancePoint Server and how it can be used to delivery accountability and alignment within organizations.
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