Hi

I don't know if this would be useful to others (would be great to get feedback from this forum) but wouldn't it sensible for the configuration relating to the model/transforms/metrics and the configuration relating to the reports to be separable?

One Use Case as follows:

• I take a Project Snapshot to investigate a particular scenarios, do a specific piece of analysis or make reports for particular stakeholders.  (Or, biggest example is where I need reports that take ages to calculate and so don't want to slow things down for users of main project)
• In the project snapshot, I keep the model the same as in the original master project, but create the reports relevant to this specific piece of analysis
• In future months, I make configuration changes (in transforms, models, metrics) as part of our BAU Continuous Improvement -to improve the general data model or allocations or to accommodate new data formats
• I want this improved model to be across all my projects - because it is better! - and because it will keep the numbers consistent
• Thus, ideally, I'd copy the new config from main Cost Transparency Project to project snapshot to update model in snapshot
• However, currently, were I to do that, i) it would update the model as desired; ii) but wipe out all the new reports I made in the snapshot; iii) and replace them with the main Cost Transparency Projects

Second Use Case as follows:

• In Dev of the main Cost Transparency Project, I am working on creating new reports or updating existing ones
• These new reports are not ones that are ready to push to Stage or Production for end users to see
• However, at the same time, an end-user has reported a defect with the data (let's say due to an allocation line not working as expected)
• In a short period, I want to address the user concerns (and this at a pace faster than I can develop new reports and certainly faster than our monthly cycle)
• Let's say the defect is really simple to fix (let's say: need to tick 'many to many' box in model and this will allow it to flow up_
• What I would want to do is push just the model, metrics and transforms to Stage and then Prod, without the reports

Hope that makes sense.  Anyone else thought this or just me? :-)

Hi Neil,

For your first use case, try creating a derived project instead of a snapshot. Derived projects will automatically inherit all changes to the parent project. For the second case, Apptio typically handles this situation by means of a Hotfix project. Your CSM should be able to explain more about Hotfix projects and how to insert them.

Our Apptio point-of-contact had not heard of a Hot Fix Project when raised.  Any further details you can provide?

Neil, we should probably post an article about hotfix projects. In the meantime, you can ask your Apptio contact to reach out to the Technical Architects (myself included) for the details, or they can schedule a call for the three of us to go over how these work.

Hi Neil, We also have found reporting changes that move with Config changes as a pain point.  We have recommended a report management feature which would allow the admin to select which reports if any should be included in the config moves.  We have multiple reporting analysts that constantly create/change ad-hoc reports that never get deleted and get promoted even though some were just created for specific analysis and should not be accessible to end-users.

Kevin, in a typical setup, you can make individual reports inaccessible to end users by un-checking the "Pre-Calc" box on the Author ribbon.