Finding the right subject area

Dozens ship, and several will look plausible for any question you are asked. Picking the wrong one is the defining OTBI mistake, and the reason it is dangerous is that the answers are subtly incomplete rather than obviously wrong. The names are the first trap: "Payables Invoices — Transactions" and "Payables Invoices — Installments" both exist, both return invoices, and they count different things. An analysis built on the wrong one returns a number that is close enough to be believed and different enough to matter. Three checks that settle it in five minutes. ONE: read what the subject area is FOR, not what it contains — the description names the business process, and the process is what decides which rows exist at all. TWO: check the GRAIN. One row per invoice, per line, per installment, per distribution? Every total you produce is a sum over that grain, and the…

In this module: Module 5 · OTBI and subject areas

1. 1What a subject area is
2. 2Finding the right subject area
3. 3Building an analysis
4. 4Joins across subject areas, and when you cannot
5. 5Calculations, bins and hierarchies
6. 6Dashboards and prompts
7. 7Security in OTBI: it is already applied
8. 8Real-time versus reported figures
9. 9Performance and the analysis nobody can run
10. 10When OTBI is the wrong answer
11. 11Lab briefing · An analysis and a dashboard