Portfolio Analyzer views are different in many ways from other Project Server views available, such as Project, Project Center, Resource Center, and Assignment views. Before you can start defining your custom Portfolio Analyzer views, you must build an Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) multidimensional cube that contains resource availability and work data. You first configure OLAP services in PWA client, and then you can configure custom Portfolio Analyzer views. Whoever wants to define a new Portfolio Analyzer view must have a permission to manage views. Users who will be Portfolio Analyzer view consumers must also have permission to access the projects and resources through PWA client to access existing Portfolio Analyzer views. NOTE Portfolio Analyzer requires that Project Server have the Enterprise Features enabled to view the data. Portfolio Analyzer displays only enterprise projects (non-enterprise projects are not part of the OLAP cube). Portfolio Analyzer views provide powerful data analysis tools. It is beyond the scope of this chapter and this book to exploit all possible features, customizations, extensions, and nuances of OLAP cubes and Portfolio Analyzer use. NOTE Portfolio Analyzer features are based on OLAP and Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services. If you want to learn more about the fundamentals of OLAP and Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services, consider reviewing the following book available from Sams Publishing: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Unleashed, Second Edition, by Ray Rakins, Paul Bertucci, and Paul Jensen, ISBN: 0672324679.
PAGE 393. The Enterprise Outline Codes that you define for your organization determine the dimensions (such as Location, Department, Project Status, and so on) available to you in Portfolio Analyzer views for reporting. These Enterprise Outline Codes enable you to analyze workload from many different perspectives: by skill, location, department, project, and more. TIP By design, task information is not included in the Analysis Services database. Therefore, you cannot use task information in Portfolio Analyzer views. If your organization wants to include task data in Portfolio Analyzer views, you need to extend the OLAP cube (manually or programmatically) to include task and other custom data required for your organization.
PAGE 800. In addition to using Enterprise Outline Codes for focused, executive style reporting, Portfolio Analyzer views can be used to filter, group, or search for data values, including data in your Enterprise Outline Codes. Portfolio Analyzer is based on a reporting interface that uses the PivotChart and PivotTable features. By using these two features, you can manipulate and interact with your project and resource data and drill into specific dimensions of data based on hierarchical structures defined by your Enterprise Outline Codes. To use and/or define the Portfolio Analyzer views, users must be assigned the following related permissions:
Creating and Modifying Portfolio Analyzer ViewsProject Server uses OLAP technology to generate multidimensional OLAP cubes and then stores the information in Extensible Markup Language (XML) for presentation and loading into the Project Center pages for the Portfolio Analyzer views. Also, Project Server updates the resource tables for viewing and reporting based on parameters you specify. Views store definitions of the fields and formats available in a report. Views do not determine the resources or projects visible through the report. After you define a Portfolio Analyzer view, you add the view to one or more categories to allow the PWA client users assigned to that category to access it. If you omit this step, the view will not be available for any data analysis. Categories define the specific projects and resources that a particular user or group of users can see. By adding views to categories, you define the objects (projects and resources) and the properties of the objects (views) available to any user or group of users. NOTE OLAP databases are called cubes because they include several dimensions, such as project, resources, and time, with summarized data, such as work, cost, and availability. OLAP cubes are designed for ad hoc data reporting. It is often used to organize large business databases. OLAP cubes are built based on your reporting requirements as defined by Enterprise Outline Codes. If you define your Enterprise Outline Codes carefully, you can easily create the reports you need for multiple user groups in many different roles. NOTE OLAP cubes generated by Microsoft Project Server 2003 can be accessed by other tools such as Microsoft Office Excel 2003. All new projects saved to a Project Server are saved with the version Published first. Other project versions can be created and saved later, but the Published version has to be created first. For example, if you want to save a Baseline version of a project schedule to the server, you must first save a Published version. In addition, there is no way to exclude a Published version of any project when generating an OLAP cube. Therefore, Baseline and other project versions published to a Project Server are included when OLAP cubes are generated. You can control which project versions you want to include and analyze using filters. You can also use the project and resource "dimensions" in the OLAP cube data to manually include or remove the specific projects or resources in the view that you're interested in using for your analysis. Portfolio Analyzer uses the following Microsoft Office Web Components features:
When you define a Portfolio Analyzer view, you can choose whether to display data in the form of a PivotTable, chart, or combination of both. When you create a Portfolio Analyzer view, you have the option to link the view to a Project Server OLAP cube on the current or a different server. You can also bind the Portfolio Analyzer view to one of several possible Project Server OLAP cubesmultiple OLAP cubes are supported. However, each single Portfolio Analyzer view can be connected only to a single Analysis Services database (OLAP cube). Although you can create multiple OLAP cubes, no utilities are available to help you manage them or the Portfolio Analyzer views that bind to them. If you want to create multiple Project Server data cubes within a single Project Server instance, the system administrator must manage OLAP cube refresh using manual techniques. Portfolio Analyzer view data is as up-to-date as the OLAP cube it is bound to. Typically, the Project Server administrator schedules Project Server OLAP server cube updates. TIP You can use the Portfolio Analyzer view PivotTable Commands and Options dialog box (Data Source tab) to change the OLAP cube that the view is currently bound to. To create a new Portfolio Analyzer view, select Admin, Manage Views, Add View, and then select the Assignment radio button. To modify an existing Portfolio Analyzer view, select Admin, Manage Views; then select the Portfolio Analyzer view that you want to modify and click Modify View. Also, you have the ability to copy an existing view definition and use it as a starting point for a new view. The menus and options you have available for creating and modifying Portfolio Analyzer views are identical, except that when you are modifying an existing view, the current view definition information is displayed. For example, if you want to create a new Portfolio Analyzer view, you need to perform the following steps:
Creating a new Portfolio Analyzer view, or editing an existing one, is different from creating views for projects, resources, and assignments. The steps involved in creation or modification of a view for Portfolio Analyzer are as follows:
When defining the Portfolio Analyzer views, a couple more sections on the Specify Views page can be edited. These two sections are described here:
After you save your changes, this Portfolio Analyzer view becomes available to all users in your organization who belong to the security categories that this view belongs to. On the Portfolio Analyzer page, users need to select the Portfolio Analyzer view from the Choose a View drop-down list. NOTE For additional in-depth information about defining, using, and managing Portfolio Analyzer views, see Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Administrator's Guide, Chapter 10, "Working with Portfolio Analyzer." |