2017-07-17 - Reporting SIG Notes

Discussion of report types, report classification

• canned : pre-defined, bases on a "requirement specification document", typically built by IT, static
• ad hoc : built by nontechnical users, dynamic, interactive; meets individual information requirements, costumized reports created by end users by request from other library staff
  • has report parameters
  • can be built of a canned report
• automated : triggered by the system, reports errors and problems, reports the health of the system, pulls data from multiple locations
• scheduled system reports : not started automatically by the system, maybe triggered by library staff members, run on a one-time or recurring basis
  
  

The above-mentioned types are intersecting !

also distinguish between:

• real time reports vs. reports against the reporting database
• system reports vs. constructed reports : IT (IndexData) writes system reports, local IT writes constructed reports

from hbz group:

• Need of templates to create and share reports; need to choose report parameters (time period, point of time, ...); need to choose output type (graphical (pie chart, bar graph), textual, excel sheet, other); create and share canned reports
• idea of collections of reports: each line of the master spreadsheet is a single report, but reports can be marked as being part of a collection (e.g. "DBS", "University Purchasing", "internal").

Templates are not supposed to be editable by everyone; need rights management for editing templates i.e. for reporting end-users; should be brought up in User Management SIG. Group report end-users into "technical" and "nontechnical" persons, also have a group "reporting programmers".

Walk-through on master sheet until line 56; classified type of report; explained report fields, purpose; see Notes column.

• next meeting will be on Aug 7th
• Doreen will give a review of the reporting at Lehigh (OLE + SirsiDynix Symphony)