MicroStrategy Report Validation

From: Sangram Nayak 
Sent: Friday, November 09, 2012 3:02 PM
To: Sam Anwar
Cc: 'Mirchandani, Vishal'; Nancy Gunner; Navin Gorkhali
Subject: RE: MSTR Report Validation for Demo_Draft
 
Hi Sam ,
 
Please find updated Microstrategy Report validation Doc.
 
Few More Points gets added :
 
  Section 5.5 -  Export / Print Functionality
 
  Section 5.6  - Security Testing
  Define access by user and by project.
  Define Privileges by user and user group.
  Define privileges across multiple projects for a single user.
  Define access by folder and user groups within a single project.
  Data Access (Security Filter) I:e PHI
 
  Section 5.7 - Conditional formatting testing or threshold testing
 
  Section 5.8 - Drilling and hyperlinks testing

Micro Strategy Report Validation

An Overview

Version No: 1.2_Issued

Date: 01- Nov -2012

Name Date
<dd/mm/yyy>
Prepared by Sangram Nayak 01/11/2012

Reviewed by

Approved by

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Project Id

System/Application Name
MI DW (Microstrategy Report)

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Revision History

Version No. Date Prepared by / Modified Comments

by

1.0_ Draft 01-Oct-2012 Sangram Nayak

1.1_Issue 02-oct-2012 Sangram Nayak Added /Removed some extra snap

shots.

1.2_Issue 09-Oct-2012 Sangram Nayak Added : Section 5.5 ,5.6,5.7 5.8

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Table of Contents

Micro Strategy Report Validation_____________________________________________________1

1. INTRODUCTION_______________________________________________________________4
1.1. Description________________________________________________________________________4
1.2. Microstrategy Report Service Advantages______________________________________________4
1.3. MicroStrategy Report Services Product Features________________________________________4
2. TEST FACTORS_______________________________________________________________6
3. TESTING TERMINOLOGIES_____________________________________________________7
4. MSTR COMPONETS___________________________________________________________7
4.1. Attributes:_________________________________________________________________________7
4.2. Facts:_____________________________________________________________________________7
4.3. Filter:_____________________________________________________________________________8
4.4. Report____________________________________________________________________________8
4.5. Practical Implementation to validate one Report_________________________________________8
5. PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION REPORT________________________________________8
5.1. MSTR Report in Grid View__________________________________________________________8
5.2. Graph View Validation_____________________________________________________________12
5.3. Graph and Grid View______________________________________________________________15
5.4. SQL View________________________________________________________________________16
5.5. Export / Print Functionality:________________________________________________________17
5.6. Security Testing:__________________________________________________________________19
5.7. Conditional formatting testing or threshold testing______________________________________19
5.8. Drilling and hyperlinks testing_________________________________________________________20

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 MicroStrategy Report Validation

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Description

Microstrategy is a Business Intelligence (Reporting) Tool. Business Intelligence (BI) reporting tools,
processes, and methodologies are key components to any decision support system and provide end
users with rich reporting, monitoring, and data analysis
Vendor = Microstrategy Inc, USA
Version = 9.3
Operating System – Windows

Advantage:

 Enhance cost-efficiency and productivity

 Build stronger customer relationships
 Optimize revenue-generating strategies
 Monitor trends and discover anomalies
 Forecast business opportunities

1.2. Microstrategy Report Service Advantages

 Familiar Unified Interfaces

 Effective Communication with Large Audiences
 Seamless Integration of Reporting and Analysis
 Easy, Efficient and Effective Design Experience
 Low Total Cost of Ownership
 Robust Security Functions
 Consolidation of Business Insight from Multiple Sources
 Report Personalization to Match User Preference
 High Throughput Production

1.3. MicroStrategy Report Services Product Features

 Users Access Reports Through a Zero-Footprint Web Interface

 Full Integration into the MicroStrategy BI Platform
 Full Interactivity for Scorecards, Dashboards and Enterprise Reports
 WYSIWYG Design for All Enterprise Scorecards, Dashboards and Reports
 Flexible Report Format and Layout
 Simplified Dashboard Design
 Simplified Dashboard Design
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 Access Information from Multiple Data Sources

 Multi-Tabbed Report Book
 Pixel-Perfect On Screen and Print-Perfect on Paper
 Creating Statements and Report Books
 Investigative OLAP Analysis
 Link to Non-MicroStrategy Data
 Flash Visualizations Rendered Flash Dashboards
 Instant Document Creation from Reports

TEST FACTORS

Complete Functional testing of the mentioned requirements will be done and focused on below Details.

 Report Data testing against warehouse

 Report formatting testing against requirement.
 Drilling and hyperlinks testing
 SQL generation Validation.
 Performance Testing.
 conditional formatting testing or threshold testing

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2. TESTING TERMINOLOGIES

 Display testing -List all the graph and grids along with selectors that should be present
and see if they are available in the final Output.
 Make sure formatting is in line with Business Standards viz. Size, Fonts, Color,
Background etc

 Functional testing - All the selectors and their exact use should be listed. See if they act in
same fashion and test with multiple values selected to check the consistency. Test if all
the functional Requirements mentioned within the requirements document are
addressed in the final product.
Data reported in the Grids/Graphs and Dashboards/Documents is representing the
functional requirements. Business functionality is reflected in the design and data

 Consistency checking –Data Displayed in all the Reports is consistent. That is if you have
two reports in your document that use the same data ensure that they do not have any
discrepancies. For example one grid shows month wise data and a graph shows quarterly.
They should add up to same values.
 SQL checks - Manually create sql for all the data cuts and see if the results match across
the two cases i:e the MSTR sql's output and your own.
 Export Checking - Now if your requirement needs exports then see if all of them are
working as planned. Check Report Formats in different forms Viz. Excel, PDF, Text etc.

3. MSTR COMPONETS

3.1. Attributes:

Attributes provide the business model with a context in which to report on and analyze facts.
While knowing your company’s total sales is useful, knowing where and when the sales took
place provides the kind of analytical depth users require on a daily basis .

An attribute is a schema object, an actual data holder of the organizations data. For example,
customer name, DOB, Gender etc ..

3.2. Facts:

Fact is also a schema object which is numeric most of the times. For example, revenue,
profit, % of Distribution etc.
Facts are additive, semi-additive and non-additive columns of database that can be
aggregated against attributes (or context) to get meaningful information

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It is a numerical Information such as quantity and Revenue .

3.3. Filter:

Filter is used to restrict Data retrieved by the report from Data warehouse .
Filters are of two types

1. View Filter - Applied on the fly after report execution is completed

2. Report Filter - Applied during execution of the report in the database.

Report filters are attribute qualifications, set Qualifications, Shortcut to a filter, shortcut to a
Report and advanced qualifications.

3.4. Report

To validate the Report below factors needs to be focused.

 Grid View
 Graph View
 Grid Graph View
 SQL View

3.5. Practical Implementation to validate one Report

Let us take an example of an existing Report:

Project Name: Mercer Dev

Report Name – ‘Report_2_ExpensesByMember’

4. PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION REPORT

4.1. MSTR Report in Grid View

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In this Report the attributes are

 Member id
 Gender
 Member name
 DOB
 Med paid amount ,RX Paid amount ,Total Paid amount are metrics (Aggregation of fact
Columns)

We need to execute our own query in database to check whether data are correctly displayed or
not in MSTR Report with all permutation and combination logic.

To Validate above Report below mention query should be executed in Database.

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Output

Table Used for above query are

a- Member
b- Medclaim
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c- RXclaim
d- Member_per_month

These tables should be mapped with MSTR ‘SQL View’ Report tables.

Validation 1 - In member id Column in MSTR Report ,’member id’ is getting displayed along with
gender type . Ex – ‘09876578976523876M’

Validation 2 – member name is getting displayed as last name and First Name separated with comma
(last name , first name ) .Data base it has two column . i:e - First name ii) Last Name

Validation 3 - DOB is getting displayed properly or not .

Validation 4 – ‘Med paid amount’ is getting displayed properly or not .

Validation 5 – ‘Rx paid amount’ is getting displayed or not .

Validation 6 – ‘Total paid amount ‘ is getting displayed as (med paid amount )+ (Rx paid amount ‘)
Validation 7 – Need to Validate the ‘execution time ‘ of each report .

I:e : Performance Issue

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Validation 8 – Format of Grid

Validation 9 – Validation of all metrics using calculation logic in SQL Query .

i:e - ‘Total paid amount ‘ is getting displayed as (med paid amount )+ (Rx paid amount ‘)

4.2. Graph View Validation

In ‘Graph view’ validation different types of Graph should be verified .

 Area
 Bar
 Line
 Pie
 Scatter
 Polar
 Radar
 Bubble
 Advance
 Combination
 Custom

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Example:

Dimension Type in Graph View

 Horizontal
 Vertical
 3d
 Horizontal -Bar

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 Vertical – Bar

 3D -Bar

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4.3. Graph and Grid View

In ‘Grid and Graph’ View both should be displayed in a single window.

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4.4. SQL View

In SQL view we need to analyze all the Microstrategy query.

Below Factors Should be analyze during SQL View.

 Query Engine Execution Start Time
 Query Engine Execution Finish Time
 Query Generation Time
 Total Elapsed Time in Query Engine:
 Sum of Query Execution Time:
 Sum of Data Fetching and Processing Time:
 Sum of Data Transfer from Data source(s) Time:
 Sum of Analytical Processing Time:
 Sum of Other Processing Time
 Number of Rows Returned
 Number of Columns Returned
 Number of Temp Tables
 Total Number of Passes
 Number of Data source Query Passes
 Number of Analytical Query Passes
 DB User
 DB Instance
 Tables Accessed
 SQL Query Analyze

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4.5. 5.5 Export / Print Functionality:

Export functionality deals with grid / graph report should be exported in below formats.

 Ms Excel
 MS Word
 MS Access
 Text File
 HTML File
 PDF File

Export
Export Functionality
Functionality In
In terms
terms of
of
MS Excel
MS Excel
MS
MS Word
Word
MS
MS Access
Access
Text
Text File
File
HTML
HTML File
File
PDF
PDF File
File

Print Functionality

User can print reports displayed in Grid, Graph, and/or Grid and Graph mode .

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Print
Print Grid
Grid Report
Report

Print
Print ‘Graph
‘Graph Report’
Report’

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4.6. Security Testing:

MicroStrategy has a security model that enables you to create users and groups, determine how they are
authenticated, control what data they can see, and what functional privileges they can have.
An access control list (ACL) is a list of users and groups and the access permission that each one has
to objects in a MicroStrategy project. Different users may have different permissions on the same
object.

Below are the attributes should be focused.

 Role level
 Column Level
 Group level
 Security filters (If any) example – PHI

The Objective of Microstrategy access and privilege control Model is to address the following:

a) Define access by user and by project.

Control who should see which BI application(s).

b) Define Privileges by user and user group.

Control who should do what within the application. Example, User A can run a report
or create a report; where as User B should only be able to run a report.

c) Define privileges across multiple projects for a single user.

Control privileges by application. Example, person A can be an architect on Project 1

and the same person can be a developer on Project 2.

d) Define access by folder and user groups within a single project.

Control accesses by folder within the same application. Example, User A can see all the
folders - "Financial", "Operational", etc where as User B can only see the folder
"Operational".

4.7. Conditional formatting testing or threshold testing

Conditional Formatting can only be applied to the metric values only. Conditional Formatting can’t be
applied to attribute Elements.

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4.8. Drilling and hyperlinks testing

Drilling lets you explore data beyond the data immediately visible on a report. You can drill
through a report to analyze data that is closely related to the original report data, or you can
expose an entirely different object on a report to see what the data looks like within a different
context. Drilling successfully on data in a report requires that you understand how business
attributes in a reporting project can relate to each other within higher-level business concepts
called hierarchies .

Drilling example

The data on your report is organized by regions, markets, and stores, and you run a report that
shows region sales. You can drill down from the region level to see
the sales for the markets that make up that region. Conversely, you can drill up from stores to
view the markets to which those stores belong.

Note: Drill can be applied to Grid as well as Graph.

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