In this tutorial you will learn to customize a report so that it
depicts consolidated information for multiple projects.
Such consolidation helps senior managers get an overview of the health
of projects handled by them. It helps them identify areas that demand special
attention, and thereby direct management bandwidth toward priority areas.
The
‘Defect status and distribution’ reports helps track patterns in defects,
which can be used to take corrective action for reducing defect resolution
time and the number of defects. When consolidated for projects the report
is a powerful tool for group managers to analyze the overall health of their
group.
Create a copy
The first step is to create a copy
of the report you want to customize.
- To create a copy, click More… .
- In the perform an action page, click copy
.
- In the save as a copy page, enter Defect status
and distribution _1 in the name field.
- Under location click My folders and click OK.
Open Report Studio
You need to open Report studio
to customize the report element properties . In IBM® Cognos Connection, to open Report Studio,
click the Report Studio link either on the same line as the report or you
can also select Report studio from the launch drop down.
Enable
selection of multiple projects
You need to select more than one
value in a prompt. For example, you have a prompt for which users must select
a project. You need to modify the prompt so that you can select more than
one project.
If you enable multiple selections, the Auto-Submit property
is always set to no.
- On the Explorer bar click Page Explorer,
and click Prompt Pages.

- Double-click Prompt Page1.
- Click the Project control. This is a Value Prompt
control that shows up in the Properties pane and toolbox.
- In the Properties pane, set the Multi-Select property
to Yes.
- On the Explorer bar, click Page Explorer,
and then Report Pages.
- Double-click Report Page 1.
- Click the Project prompt control.
- In the Properties pane, set the Multi-Select property
to Yes.
- On the Explorer bar click Query Explorer.
The report has four queries, one for each of the three charts (Defects by
State, Defects by Severity, and Defects by Priority), and one to select the
project list.
- Click the query DefectByState.
- Double-click the filter expression associated with the Project prompt.
- Change the operator [Project]=?Project? to [Project]
in (?Project?).
- Click Validate Expression, and click OK.
- Repeat steps 10 to 12 for the other three queries.
Add a Prompt Button
To run the customized report
you need to add a prompt button.
- Select the prompts page in the page explorer.
- In the Insertable Objects pane, on the Toolbox tab,
drag Prompt Button
to the work area.
- Click the prompt icon and, in the Properties pane,
set the Type property to Finish.
This will enable you to run the report, because in this case Auto-submit is
set to No.
Select multiple projects
You are now ready to
generate a report showing defect status and distribution for multiple projects.
- From the Run menu, click Run Report
- HTML.
- In the Parameters page, use the Ctrl key to select Auction, Bid
management, and Account opening from the Project list
- Click Finish.
- Validate your report to ensure that it contains no errors. From the Tools menu,
click Validate Report. A message box appears indicating
whether any errors were found in the report.
- Verify that the report correctly contains data from multiple projects
before saving.
- Save your report to preserve the modifications you made. In the File menu,
click Save, or Save As to save
a copy of the report under a different name.