Microsoft SharePoint 2010 PerformancePoint Services Unleashed

Tim Kashani, founder and CEO of IT Mentors and author, has trained more than 100,000 students worldwide. He builds scorecards to track how many vegetables his son consumes daily. Tim thinks increasing is better. His son wants more information before making a strategic decision on the issue.   Ola Ekdahl has worked with PerformancePoint since its early alpha stages, as a trainer, content creator, and author, and has extensive experience developing business intelligence solutions. He’s currently developing a KPI measuring how much catnip his cats can consume. The cats think they should use increasing is better but Ola disagrees.   Kevin Beto, a 10-year Microsoft veteran, is currently a test lead on the Microsoft SharePoint BI team. He builds scorecards to track his performance in arm wrestling and twister contests. The calculations and thresholds for these scorecards test the outer limits of performance monitoring and business intelligence.   Rachel Vigier is a writer. She has authored two volumes of poetry, a book about dance, and many technical and business works. She uses scorecards to track how many books her family reads. Increasing is definitely better and so far everybody consistently exceeds targets.  

Introduction 1

Who Should Buy This Book 2

How This Book Is Organized 2

Conventions Used in This Book 4

Text Conventions 4

Special Elements 4

1 Integrated Performance 5

Business Intelligence as a Discipline 5

Performance Management Methodologies 9

Business Intelligence as an Enabler 9

Integrated Business Planning 10

Summary 12

2 PerformancePoint Services 2010 13

PerformancePoint Services 2010 Architecture 13

What’s New? 15

What’s the Same? 16

What’s Gone? 17

Summary 17

3 Case Study: Managing What You Measure 19

Overview and Business Background 20

Business Situation and Requirements 21

Market Expansion 22

Increase Popularity 24

Where to Start 24

Proposed Solution Architecture Roadmap 25

Basic Project Plan 26

Gather Data 26

Analyze Data and Identify Measures 29

Design KPIs and Scorecards 30

Design Reports 32

Design the Dashboard 34

Summary 38

Best Practices 38

4 Installing Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Configuring

PerformancePoint Services 39

Examining PPS Installation Prerequisites 39

Examining Server Hardware Prerequisites for PPS 40

Examining Server Software Prerequisites for PPS 40

Running the Preparation Tool 42

Installing SharePoint 44

Examining the Standalone Installation for SharePoint 44

Running the Standalone Installation for SharePoint 45

Examining the Server Farm Installation for SharePoint 47

Running the Server Farm Installation for SharePoint 48

Configuring PPS 53

Configuring the Secure Store Service 53

Creating the Service Application 56

Starting the PerformancePoint Service 57

Creating the PerformancePoint Service Application 58

Set the Unattended Service Account 61

Associating the Service Application Proxy with a Proxy Group 63

Activating the Feature in the Web Application 64

Validating the PPS Installation 67

Summary 68

Best Practices 68

5 Introducing PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer 71

Understanding PerformancePoint Dashboard

Designer Prerequisites 72

Installing Dashboard Designer 73

Uninstalling Dashboard Designer 75

Examining Dashboard Designer 76

Examining First Class Objects 78

Examining the Home Tab 79

Examining the Edit Tab 81

Examining the Create Tab 82

Examining Dashboard Designer Item Properties 83

Content Migration with Dashboard Designer 84

Importing Content with Dashboard Designer 84

Summary 86

Best Practices 87

6 Data Sources 89

Overview of Data Sources 90

Multidimensional Data Sources 90

Tabular Data Sources 91

Data Source Security and Trusted Locations 92

Analysis Services Data Source 92

Create a New Analysis Services Data Source 92

Authentication 93

Formatting Dimension and Cache Interval 95

PowerPivot Data Sources 95

Server Requirements 95

Creating a New PowerPivot Data Source 96

Manipulating PowerPivot Data 96

Excel Services Data Source 97

Create a New Excel Services Data Source 97

Import from Excel Workbook 102

Import Data from an Existing Workbook 102

SharePoint List Data Source 105

SQL Server Table Data Source 107

Time Intelligence 108

Configuring Time Intelligence for an Analysis

Services Data Source 109

Configuring a Tabular Data Source 110

STPS Syntax 111

STPS Example 115

Summary 118

Best Practices 119

7 Using Indicators, KPIs, and Scorecards 121

Understanding and Working with Indicators 122

Examining Indicator Styles 122

Examining Indicator Sources 122

Creating Custom Indicators 123

Editing a Custom Indicator 126

Understanding and Working with KPIs 128

Creating an Analysis Services KPI 128

Understanding Multiple Targets and Actuals 133

Examining Data Mapping 135

Understanding and Working with Scoring 142

Changing a Scoring Pattern 143

Editing Thresholds 146

Examining How a Score Is Calculated 147

Examining a Scoring Walkthrough 150

Examining Rollup Scoring 153

Understanding and Working with Scorecards 154

Creating KPIs with the Scorecard Wizard 154

Adding a Dimension to a Scorecard 158

Examining the Scorecard Editor 160

Designing Scorecards 161

Summary 163

Best Practices 163

8 Reports 165

Overview of Reports 165

Examining Analytic Chart Reports 167

Adding Data Elements 169

Adding Additional Measures and Dimensions 170

Using Measures and Dimensions as Filters 172

Using Interactivity Features and Context Menus 173

Examining Analytic Grid Reports 175

Using Interactivity Features and Context Menus 176

Examining Excel Services Reports 176

Examining KPI Details Reports 180

Examining ProClarity Analytics Server Page Reports 183

Examining Reporting Services Reports 185

Strategy Map 188

Examining Web Page Reports 192

Examining Decomposition Tree Reports 193

Examining Show Details Reports 194

Summary 196

Best Practices 197

9 Page Filters, Dashboards, and SharePoint Integration 199

Overview 199

Creating Filters 200

PPS Filters 200

Creating a PPS Filter in Dashboard Designer 201

SharePoint 2010 Filters 204

Creating a SharePoint Filter from SharePoint Designer 205

Creating Dashboards 207

Web Part Connections 208

Source Values 209

Connect To Values 209

Dashboards in Dashboard Designer 210

Creating and Deploying a Dashboard 210

Dashboard Zones 216

Dashboard Pages 218

Working with Filters on Dashboards 220

Using the TheGreenOrange Data Source Option 224

Creating Dashboards in the Browser 227

Create a Dashboard Using PPS Objects 228

Summary 232

Best Practices 233

10 Securing a PerformancePoint Installation 235

Security Overview 235

Applying Security to PPS Elements 236

Defining Permissions Specific to an Element 239

Applying Security to Data Connections 242

Unattended Service Account 244

Unattended Service Account with the Username

Added to the Connection String 244

Per-User Identity 245

Authentication Troubleshooting 251

Securing a Deployment with TLS 252

Configuring TLS on Web Applications 253

Configuring TLS on PPS Web Services 254

Secure Connections to Data Sources 255

Configuring Per-User Authentication with Kerberos 255

Create SPNs for the Farm and Data Sources 256

Enable Constrained Delegation for Computers and Service Accounts 258

Configure and Start the Claims to Windows Token Service 259

Summary 259

Best Practices 260

11 Working with the Monitoring API 261

Introduction: Extending PPS Functionality 261

Installing SharePoint on a Client Operating System 262

Installing Prerequisites 263

Setting Up Your Development Environment 265

Copying PPS DLLs from the GAC 265

Working with PPS Objects 267

Creating Indicator Example 267

Updating Custom Properties on KPIs 268

Custom Objects and Editors 269

Creating a Custom Tabular Data Source 269

Creating a Class Library for the Custom Tabular

Data Source Provider 270

Signing the Assembly 274

Custom Object Editors 274

Creating a Custom Editor for the File System Data Source 275

Deploying the Data Source and Editor 279

Using the Custom Object 282

Summary 284

Best Practices 284

12 Maintaining a PPS Deployment 285

Planning for High Availability 285

Examining the Management Pack 286

Examining Network Load Balancing 286

Configuring Multiple Application Servers 287

Managing PPS 288

PerformancePoint Service Settings 288

Trusted Data Source and Content Locations 296

Migrating from PPS 2007 299

Step-by-Step Migration from PPS 2007 300

Using Windows PowerShell and Cmdlets 302

Launching PowerShell 302

Cmdlet Reference 302

Cmdlets Available Out of the Box 303

Cmdlet Samples 310

Troubleshooting 312

Event Viewer 312

Trace Log Files 313

Summary 313

Best Practices 313

Index 315