This week’s episode concludes our multi-week series on estimating reporting processes. Remember as I opened the series I spoke of a project where one of a dozen critical daily reports was not able to be produced after 4 days of continuous running.  After using my method, not only was the company able to run all the critical daily reports in the required time, they were … Continue reading Recap of Steps in Estimating Reporting Processes

Reporting from transactional detail is the most flexible thing possible. But it also is the most expensive because of data volumes. Our approach has been to test if we could use transactional data to produce our reports. In Step 4 of estimating metric engine processes, we’ve determined that it is not possible. Reducing processing costs is possible with a posting processes. Posting processes eliminate unneeded … Continue reading Final Step: Aggregate or Post to Produce Reports

After performing some tests to determine run times for reports given a potential hardware environment (as described last week in Step 3), the next step is to evaluate the results. Remember, I’ve suggested that the ultimate in report flexibility comes from doing all reporting from transactional detail:  If we capture the attribute on the transaction, then we can use it in a report if we … Continue reading Step 4: Evaluate Performance of Reporting Process

Build an initial model of performance by bringing together the statistics gathered in steps 1 and 2 Continue reading Step 3: System Performance in Estimating Reporting Processes

Gather statistics about the reports to be produced. Continue reading Step 2: Report Characteristics in Estimating Reporting Processes

Gather statistics about business events (transactions), frequencies, and static or reference data to be needed for the reporting domain. Continue reading Step 1: Transactions needed for a Metric Engine

This week’s episode continues last week’s meeting analogy, discussing the impact of big data on how a computer works, and the need for access to the data can significantly impact how much of the “big data” is actually usable. Financial processes almost always begin with a balance. When one checks a financial account, the first thing of interest is “What’s the balance?” Yet balances are … Continue reading Computers Explained: Big Data Implications

In business computing, it’s simple to break types of work done into two broad categories: (1) Transaction Capture and (2) Reporting Processes. The amount of code supporting transaction capture processes is likely much more extensive than reporting processes. But my work focuses much more on reporting and analytical processes. A Metric Engine is the idea for something much closer to the simplicity of a search … Continue reading Computers Explained: The Meeting Analogy

Applied math allows us to predict the future in many ways. I’ve had many mentors that have asked me over the years as they reviewed my approach to problems: “Have you done the math?” Daniel Kahneman in his book, “Thinking Fast and Slow” explains that doing math requires greater effort of our brains. So doing math is not easy, but it protects us from many … Continue reading Do the Math: Estimating Reporting Processes