BW Query Management

8/7/2019 BW Query Management

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2007 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.

Unlock the Secrets ofQuery Management

Using SAP NetWeaver BI

Gary NolanTekLink International

1

In This Session

Learn your options for creating and managing queries in

SAP NetWeaverBI

Gain insights into important query development and

performance standards

Get recommendations for establishing and enforcing

query design standards

Learn the best ways to manage and roll out queries

Get guidelines to match complex query requirements

with the right solutions in SAP NetWeaver BI

2

What Well Cover

Development strategy

Publishing strategy

Performance management strategy Security strategy

Wrap-up

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3

Develop a Data Management Strategy

Most of query management is about gathering the

proper requirements

Develop a sound methodology to gather and track the

requirements from both:

Top down from the query, to the data sources

Bottom up from the data sources, to the query

Developing a good methodology to gather the query

requirements allows for a sound data model

4

What Should Be in Your Functional Model Document?

Business questions asked and answered by the data

model

History requirements of information

Data sources required to complete model

Volume/system/frequency

Dependencies/constraints/assumptions

Transformation of data required

Frequency and timing

Functional model diagram to show flow and data model

5

Presentation requirements

Audience and distribution of presentation

Security Sign-off

What Should Be in Your Functional Model Document? (cont.)

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6

Enforce Strong Query Governance to Ensure Consistency

Providing a coherent strategy for query development

means keeping queries consistent on the following

elements:

Naming

Look and feel

Security

Tools Ease of use

Performance

Templates

Keep the queries consistent

Develop a standards document to spell out the query strategy

and development, security, and naming standards

7

How Can You Ensure Standards Are Followed?

Establish a design steward for each functional area The steward

Is a member of the SAP NetWeaver BI development team

Is not a consultant

Is responsible for current and future design in onefunctional area

Can spot conflicts and scope creep into his/her area

Establishes some ownership in the development team

Allows team members to focus on one functional area

SAP is much too big to understand many areas

The design steward works with the business, projectmanager, and overall SAP NetWeaver BI data architect

Have some redundancy in case team members leave orare reassigned

8

Tool Strategy

Determine the right tool for the job

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9

SAP NetWeaver BI Front-End Tool Tips

BEx Analyzer Excel-based and typically requires a desktop GUI to be set up

for all users

Can be cumbersome when rolling out front-end patches

Nice for users that are used to BEx Analyzer from 3.x or thosethat prefer the data in Excel

BEx Web Analyzer Runs on Java and does not require GUI on the user machine

Much faster to roll out new users

Memory intensive

Because it uses Java, it is typically much more memoryintensive than BEx Analyzer

Nice for users who want integration of Java with limitedfootprint

10

More SAP NetWeaver BI Front-End Tool Tips

BEx Report Designer

Formatted report development tool

Can be used for a subset of reporting requirements

Accommodates users that require a preformatted report

Robust in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0, but is not a complete

replacement for Crystal Reports

Crystal has much more functionality but for many

implementations, Report Designer is enough

Overall nice toolset but should be limited to those reports that

are flat and without drilldowns

11

More SAP NetWeaver BI Front-End Tool Tips (cont.)

Web Applications Designer

Web development tool

Can be used to create Web applications to be used with SAP

NetWeaver BI

Most commonly used to develop Web templates to be used

with existing SAP NetWeaver BI reports

Robust tool set, but not very intuitive for a new developer

SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer

Robust tool to allow integrated reporting from multiple areas

Very promising tool

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12

More SAP NetWeaver BI Front-End Tool Tips (cont.)

Third-party front-end tools such as Crystal, Cognos, etc.

A Why not SAP? approach should be followed

Any benefit should be heavily weighted against the cost of

integration of the third-party tool

No third-party tool is integrated as tightly as they tell you

Many times its difficult to determine where an issue

resides with SAP or with the third-party vendor

Note

13

What Is a Key Figure Matrix?

A universal document used to track and document the

most common key figures and KPIs

Establishes one place for all key figures and KPIs

Enforces one vision and view of these values

Allows agreement on one formula and method for calculating

a KPI

Establishes one central repository for naming and change

management

Sets common abbreviations, categories, granularity, etc.

14

What Is a Key Figure Matrix? (cont.)

A universal document used to track and document the

most common key figures and KPIs (cont.)

Assigns one owner to a KPI

It is quite common for one KPI to be measured quite

differently by different audiences

One customer I worked with had three different

definitions of a commonly used measure who

decides which measure is right?

This document keeps the Business Intelligence (BI) team

out of these decisions

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15

How Do I Complete the KPI Matrix?

Most projects use a spreadsheet as their KPI matrix

The document must be a living document and owned

by the business and process teams

This should not be seen as a BI team deliverable

Before any work can be done in SAP NetWeaver BI,

insist that all key figures that are calculated be

documented in the KPI matrix

There should be no query formulas or InfoProvider

transformation calculations without the measure first

documented in the KPI matrix

16

How Do I Complete the KPI Matrix? (cont.)

Some projects take short cuts and allow measures to be

slipped in without documenting these on the KPI matrix

Eventually this will come back to haunt them

If the KPI conflicts with other KPIs or the calculation is not

clear, the BI team often has to go back and redo their work

This document helps get the calculations right the

first time

Insist on sign-off of the KPI matrix once complete

17

Query Development Strategy Tips

It is typically better to have fewer queries with many

different free characteristics and key figure values in

one query than many queries with very narrow scope

This strategy allows existing queries to answer many more

business questions by simply using new filter criteria or

drilling down differently in the report

Also allows for easier testing, documentation, and rollout

You can add many key figure values to one query by

putting it in the query and hiding it with the ability to

view when necessary

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Hide (Can Be Shown)

Allows you tohave key figures

that are in the

query but not

initially shown

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Utilize Key Figure Grouping in the InfoProvider

Key figure grouping can now be used

Folders

also appear

in BEx Query

Designer

These are like

dimensions

for key

figures

20

Query Development Strategy Tips

Do not develop queries to match to existing legacy

reports

They reflect existing measurement criteria

As SAP ECC becomes more mature and users become more

aware, there will be new measurements

Focus instead on the KPI or key figures that need to be

measured and build to them

Be careful of query requirements with many different

levels of granularity

Some metrics only make sense at one level and cannot be

aggregated

Make sure you understand the metric

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Query Development Strategy Tips (cont.)

Always develop queries using a MultiProvider, even if

there is only data being read from one InfoProvider

Allows for growth, if needed, without moving or changing the

query drastically

Allows for logical partitioning to be added later to the data

model without disrupting the query

22

Develop Queries in Production?

Many customers develop queries directly in production This is a big debate among customers

Pros Quick deployment

Real production data can be used to test queries

Cons Hard to enforce governance

Performance issues may arise

Lack of understanding of the data leads to incorrectassumptions

The best way to achieve optimal performance andstandardize queries is to not allow query development inproduction Develop all queries in the development environment and

transport through the landscape (DEV QA PROD)

23

If Youre Developing Queries in Production

Keep query development in the hands of a few well-

trained power users

Have a certification/training process for the power users

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If Youre Developing Queries in Production (cont.)

Make sure power users are

Strategic

They will steer the strategic vision of BI to the user

community; they need to understand the overall reporting

strategy

Detail-oriented

Not renegadesThey need to adhere to standards and documentation

rigorously

Business-oriented, yet technical

This allows them to understand both sides: the

development and the user community

25

Production Query Development Tips

Have strict naming and development criteria

This is where many SAP NetWeaver BI projects fail the

query development becomes the Wild West

There is no common naming (i.e., Net Sales in two queries

mean two different things)

Proliferation of queries makes the solution difficult to manage

Filter criteria is not administered consistently

Be mindful of data integrity

Try to keep queries with the same look and feel

Keep power users informed of the changing data model Filters or selection criteria may not be clear

26

Production Query Development Tips (cont.)

Make sure the query developers understand

performance strategy and adhere to this strategy

Consider the security implications of development Sometimes segmenting the data can make security

implementation easier

Develop a publishing strategy to segregate different

types of queries

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27

What Well Cover


Publishing strategy

Performance management strategy

Security strategy

Wrap-up

28

Query Publishing Strategy

Publishing refers to rolling out new queries to end users

Group new queries into three categories:

Sanctioned Queries

These have been built by the development team, validated,

and published to the user base

Power User Queries

These have been created by a select group of the user

community

Favorites

Queries that have been created as a result of other queriesand saved to be reused

29

Sanctioned Queries

Published by the BI team

Follows strict standards

Transported from one environment to another Use a naming standard Z_* prefix and set security so no user

can add new Z_* or change these queries at all

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Power User Queries

Published by the BI power users

Typically developed in production

Use a naming standard Y_* prefix and set security so only

power users can change

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Favorites

Created from another query in production

Filtered result set

Characteristic/key figure view

Use a naming standard X_* prefix and set security so only the

user that created it can change it

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Build an Effective Query Change Control Strategy

Understanding and communicating change control

helps to eliminate many issues with end users

Determine how your changes to the data model willaffect existing queries or the existing user base

Some query changes will break existing favorites built from

that query

Know what these changes are in order to prevent frustrated

users

Develop a methodology for communicating change

Link changes back to the original functional

requirements document and KPI matrix

Periodically purge non-used queries

Publish a list of these, wait for a few weeks, then delete

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Query Publishing Strategy Segmentation

It may make sense to allow the power user queries to

exist in production for a limited time

If these power user queries are useful, they could be

copied and transported by the BI team

This would make them Sanctioned

Before sanctioning, queries can be reviewed to make

sure they adhere to:

Development standards

Naming standards

Performance standards

Security standards

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Segment Queries on the Portal

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SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 and SAP Enterprise Portal

SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 is much more integrated with the

SAP Enterprise Portal than SAP BW 3.x

A portal strategy needs to be developed in conjunctionwith the BI team

To federate or not to federate

Non-BI content

Custom Java

Organization of the SAP Enterprise Portal

Functional areas

Security

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What Well Cover


Publishing strategy


Security strategy

Wrap-up

37

Query Performance Tips

Make sure the query developers understand the data

model

Limit the initial query result set

Many queries try to show too much data on the initial view and

the users then un-drill the report to match what they need

This degrades performance

Limit the level of hierarchies on initial view

This can slow performance if showing multiple levels of

hierarchies

38

Query Performance Tips (cont.)

Always use mandatory variables

Typically this is, at minimum, created for the date criteria

Use variable settings to default values into mandatory

variables

Have mandatory variables appear as the first selection

Make sure mandatory variables are turned on for all large

queries

Utilize filters based on InfoProviders

If a query is using data from only one InfoProvider, filter the

query on that InfoProvider to speed performance

Suppress results rows if theyre not needed

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Query Performance Tips (cont.)

Eliminate or reduce Not logic in queries

When possible

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SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 Performance Tips

There is significant performance work being done in

SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 in each Java support package

Do your best to stay current with support packages

This is difficult because the Java is now tied to stacks

This means that the ABAP and SAP Basis sides need to be

upgraded to the new patch at the same time as Java

This typically requires some regression testing

41

SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 Performance Tips (cont.)

New features are even being added to support packages

You can find the list of features on the SAP Service

Marketplace

Many new features in Support Stack 12

SAP did a lot of work to improve Java performance in this

support stack

You should be on this if you are using BI Java

Plan for a great deal more memory in SAP NetWeaver BI

7.0 if using Java

A good Basis resource is a must

Getting SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 tuned properly from an SAP

Basis standpoint is quite challenging

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What Well Cover


Publishing strategy


Security strategy

Wrap-up

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Security Options

SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 analysis authorizations

SAP highly recommends moving to this new method of

security after upgrade

Analysis authorization security can be set at almost

any level

Characteristic/key figure

Characteristic value

Hierarchy node

InfoProvider

Query Plan a security strategy that will effectively secure

reports with the minimum amount of maintenance and

ongoing support

44

SAP Enterprise Portal Security

Adds another dimension of security

Make sure that this is coordinated and reconciled with SAP

NetWeaver BI security

Can be used in place of or in conjunction with the SAP

NetWeaver BI security

This can cause conflicts

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Security Strategy

Group the users into logical groups

Use these roles to help develop the security roles

Do not forget how ad-hoc or power user development of

queries in production affects security

This is a big hole in most security strategies

There is often no check to make sure that a newly developed

query follows security standards

46

Security Strategy (cont.)

Plan for security during the requirement gathering

process

Do not attempt to retrofit the security into the model after

development is complete

Some security can be handled or made easier with data

modeling decisions

Plan adequate testing time

Test from end-to-end

Including portal

47

What Well Cover


Publishing strategy

Performance management strategy Security strategy

Wrap-up

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4848

Resources

Gary Nolan, Maximize Your Query Optimization Options

in BW (BW Expert, July and August 2007).

Catherine Roze Best Practices for Allowing Power

Users to Develop Queries in BW (BW Expert, March

2004).

Gary Nolan, Effectively Gather BW Functional

Requirements (BW Expert, May 2007).

Gary Nolan, Efficient SAP NetWeaver BI Implementation

and Project Management(SAP PRESS, 2007).

4949

7 Key Points to Take Home

Develop a strong requirements gathering methodology

Establish and enforce query design standards to ensure

consistency

Understand the advantages and disadvantages to

developing queries directly in production

Develop a publishing strategy to segregate different

types of queries

Be cognizant of performance during query development

Have an end-to-end security strategy including theportal

Create a change control strategy to manage new and

changed queries and roll these out to the end user

5050

Your Turn!

How to contact me:

Gary Nolan

[email protected]

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