Designing processes - EMC Community Network

Monitoring Business Activity
1. Dashboard content and quantity - It is best practice to determine the content to display in each
dashboard. This work is really an extension of identifying reporting requirements since a majority
of dashboards contain reports (dashboards can also contain process diagrams, alerts, and process
simulation dashlets). One strategy to determine dashboard content is for each dashboard to contain
the same type of information.
• For instance, if you are monitoring a purchase order process, then you may want one dashboard
(or more) to contain only summary information. Summary reports would be designed by using
report aggregation or an aggregation report entity. This type of dashboard may be appropriate for
an Operations Manager, for instance.
• Then, you may want another set of dashboards to display instance-level data that looks at the
status of individual processes. This type of dashboard may be appropriate for a task processor.
• A third dashboard might include only alerts, which would be of interest to a supervisor.
Another approach is to design dashboards that incorporate single and multi-drill-down reports.
These dashboards integrate high-level, aggregated reports with reports that provide greater
amounts of detail. Users can navigate, or drill-down, from one report to another based on their
needs. Multi-drill-down reports update the contents in surrounding target reports based on a
users’ selection in a base report. Single and multi-drill-down reports are addressed in the Business
Activity Monitor Implementation Guide.
Drill-down reports are well-suited in situations where the purpose of the dashboard is to identify
root causes of process problems. Users must be able to move from one level of detail to another,
while attempting to isolate the process instances that are problematic. Dashboards configured in
this way should be provided to users that also have the authority to change the process, if necessary.
2. Dashboard users - It is best practice to always consider the characteristics of your dashboard users
as you design reports and begin to think through the contents of each dashboard. Individual users
are assigned to one or more roles and dashboards are assigned to roles. That is the extent of the
security, so when a dashboard is assigned to a role, all users associated with that role can view the
contents of the dashboard. It is important to compile a complete list of users and roles so you do
not inadvertently assign dashboards to users that do not require them. You may find that the roles
available in the repository are too broad. In this case, you may need to create separate dashboard
roles. Another method for controlling access is to use filter variables that limit the data displayed in
dashboard reports to that owned by a specific dashboard user.
3. Number of dashlets for each dashboard - The optimum number of dashlets contained in a single
dashboard is determined by the resolution of the users’ monitors. If monitor resolution is 1440 x
900, then no more than four dashlets should be included in a dashboard. If monitor resolution is
set to 1920 x 1200, then up to six dashlets can be placed on a dashboard. It is best practice, then,
to know the capabilities of users’ hardware, and to plan for the lowest common denominator.
If 50 users have the higher monitor resolution, and 10 have the lower resolution, then plan for
dashboard to contain four dashlets.
There are a few other points to consider:
• Dashlets containing Crystal Reports require more space so take this into consideration when
you are planning dashboards
• Small dashlets can be maximized
Crystal Reports versus Simple Reports
The Business Activity Monitor offers two approaches to designing BAM dashboard reports: simple
reports and Crystal Reports. Simple reports are designed exclusively in Process Reporting Services
EMC Documentum xCelerated Composition Platform Version 1.6 Best Practices Guide 91