The lifetime of a Cognos 8 business intelligence application can be months, or years. During that time, data may change, and new requirements appear, so authors must modify existing content and develop new content, and administrators must update models and data sources as the underlying data changes. For more information about using data sources, see the Administration and Security Guide and the Framework Manager User Guide.
In a working application, the technical and security infrastructure and the portal are in place, as well as processes for change management, data control, and so on. For information about the workflow associated with creating Cognos 8 content, see the Architecture and Deployment Guide. For more information, see the Cognos Solutions Implementation Methodology toolkit, which includes implementation roadmaps and supporting documents. The Cognos SIM toolkit is available on the Cognos Global Services Web site, http://support.cognos.com/en/consulting/csim/index.html.
 | locate and prepare data sources and models Cognos 8 can report from a wide variety of data sources, both relational and dimensional. Database connections are created in the web administration interface, and are used for modeling, for authoring and for running the application. To use data for authoring and viewing, the business intelligence studios need a subset of a model of the metadata (called a package). The metadata may need extensive modeling in Framework Manager. |
| | build and publish the content Reports, scorecards, and so on are created in the business intelligence studios of Cognos 8. Which studio you use depends on the content, lifespan and audience of the report, and whether the data is modeled dimensionally or relationally. Report Studio reports and scorecards are usually prepared for a wider audience, published to Cognos Connection or another portal, and scheduled there for bursting, distribution, and so on. You can also use Report Studio to prepare templates for self-service reporting. |
| | deliver and view the information You deliver content from the Cognos portal or other supported portals, and view information that has been saved to portals, or delivered by other mechanisms. You can also run reports, analyses, scorecards, and so on from within the business intelligence studio in which they were created. For information about tuning and performance, see the Administration and Security Guide and the Cognos Global Services Web site, http://support.cognos.com. |
