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Challenge 1: Lock report table to three model objects [++] 

Mon February 05, 2018 01:37 PM

 

Challenges are designed to help sharpen your TBM and Apptio skills. See title for rating: [+] Easy   [++] Moderate   [+++] Challenging

 

Ready to play? In 2018, @Chris Davidson will have 6 different challenges for you. Answer as many as you can. Each challenge you answer correctly will earn you a wedge for your virtual game piece and 30 points. In December we'll see who earned the most pieces and if anyone has collected them all.

 

Your chance to earn the first piece starts now and is only open until Feb 28th. Read through the problem, and submit your answer to get in the game. Here we go...  

 

Chris says,

 

I have a model report (R12) in my cost transparency project, showing how Cost flows from IT Resource Towers (filtered on just Compute rows) object to Applications object (in this case showing each application name):

 

So far, so good. I reset the model report view and started again, this time at the Cost Source object, clicking on Internal Labor as the starting cost pool. Then I clicked Compute to show how just my labor-specific server (compute) costs flow to each application:

 

 

Notice the per-application costs are lower than before. That's what I expected, since the second screenshot is limited to just my internal labor costs, not total costs. The second screenshot effectively locks the cost model to three objects: Cost Source, IT Resource Towers, and Applications. Oracle CRM for instance has an estimated $10,309 of server-related labor cost (or labor-related server cost, if you prefer).

 

Now I want to see this same information in a regular report table.

I began by locking a new report table to two Cost model objects: IT Resource Towers and Applications.

Then I filtered to show just Compute (server) cost:

 

 

Time to add the last ingredient. I dragged Cost Pool from (left) Tables > Cost Source into Rows section of the ad hoc component configuration:

 

 

But I see only a warning message: "Cannot lookup across 3 objects."

 

Is there any way to modify the report (without modifying the model or data tables) to show only the internal labor-related server cost per application?





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Comments

Sun January 06, 2019 01:10 PM

@Chris Davidson needs a break ;-) but we're definitely going to do something a long the lines of learn / test your knowledge while you play. @Meghan Johel might help us, so we make sure to keep that real world Premier CSM perspective in the game :-) 


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Fri January 04, 2019 06:54 PM

Are we resetting the challenges for 2019?


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Wed May 30, 2018 03:32 PM

Thanks @Myda Balingcongan!!!


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Wed May 30, 2018 02:56 PM

@Usha Shrestha


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Thu April 19, 2018 01:13 PM

Thanks. Didnt knew Challenge 2 was out


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Thu April 19, 2018 11:54 AM

Wed April 18, 2018 04:03 AM

@Phaneendra Sristi, food for thought...


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Wed April 18, 2018 04:02 AM

did I miss the next challenge by any chance :O


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Thu March 29, 2018 04:00 PM

I confirmed with Chris. Challenge two coming next week! (April 2-6) :-)


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Thu March 29, 2018 11:46 AM

He is - hopefully I can get this one ;-)


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Thu March 29, 2018 11:14 AM

Me, too, Christy - I'm not as well-versed in reporting personally - more of a model chick - even with my limited knowledge lol - but on the bright side, we receive the correct answer later and learn something new! 


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Wed March 28, 2018 12:51 PM

Next month! @Chris Davidson are you cooking one up? 


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Wed March 28, 2018 12:33 PM

This looks fun! I'm sad I missed the first question -- when's the next one


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Fri March 16, 2018 04:54 PM

Woohoo thank you Rhonda


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Fri March 16, 2018 04:51 PM

Whew that took me a minute, but your badges and points are awarded. @Steven Young, @Julie Batty, @Melissa Cunningham; @Chrystie Lambert, @Daniel Swainston, @Craig Solomon, @Jonathan Strauss, @Suresh Sawlani Steven Cornish you've all earned one game piece and 30 points. 

 

 

 

@Chris Davidson will post the next chance to win in April. 


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Fri March 02, 2018 12:20 PM

@Julie Batty, @Melissa Cunningham @Chrystie Lambert @Daniel Swainston @Craig Solomon @Steven Young @Jonathan Strauss @Suresh Sawlani Steven Cornish  #nailedit


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Thu March 01, 2018 10:03 AM

Congratulations all!!!  And keeping this one for future reference!!  


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Thu March 01, 2018 09:55 AM

Congratulations to 9 of you who submitted a correct answer:

Steven Young
Julie Batty
Melissa L. Cunningham
Christina Lambert Pastella
Daniel Swainston
Craig Solomon
Jonathan Strauss
Suresh Sawlani
Steven Cornish

 

Locking a report component (table, chart, KPI, etc.) fully to 3 objects triggers a relatively large drill calculation, so this functionality is intentionally limited to partial drills when a third model object is involved.

 

I cannot drag Cost Source.Cost Pool into the Rows area of the ad hoc query configuration area, but I can drag Cost Source.Cost Pool into the Filters area instead, and then edit the filter to include only Cost Pool=Internal Labor values. My report table won't mention internal labor (since Cost Pool is not a visible table column), so I should probably label the table as "Labor-related server cost per app" or something similar. I can view the table data path to confirm it drills between 3 objects:

Applications/
.DrillTo/
IT Resource Towers/
.DrillTo/
Cost Source/
!FILTER[{Cost Source Master Data.Cost Pool}="Internal Labor"]/

 

Another option: add a slicer to the report, and drag Cost Source.Cost Pool into the slicer's Slice By area. This is nice because (1) it allows users the option of locking to the third object, and (2) it visually emphasizes the presence of the third object lock, instead of me having to add an explanatory label to the table.

 

Keep in mind that Staging and Production environments do not precalculate all possible combinations of slicer selections, so be aware that you may be causing report users to experience wait times when they interact with the slicer - and these wait times will be higher than usual because we're locking to three model objects instead of just to one or two objects.


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