Developer Output

[FLPylot]

Does anyone have any guidelines as to what can reasonably be expected form a Cognos Report Developer? I understand there are many variables, but I am looking for a general guideline. Our leadership thinks that 204 reports per week should be possible even with an incomplete EDW and limited requirements

[calson33]

I guess if you have a staff of 204, that would be a reasonable average.  ???

[Lynn]

 :o

I love that the number is a very specific 204. I wish I could see the math that went into that analysis to come up with 204.

I wonder if the idea of self service reporting has arisen? Give the users training, some good templates, and a handful of sample reports and then off to the races they go. According to my math that would cover 187 of the 204 reports that need to be developed each week  ;)

Kidding aside, I would suggest that a simple report can take 1 to 3 days which would include back and forth with the user to shake out requirements as well as testing, documentation, and user acceptance testing. That is a duration, not an effort estimate and assumes the user is available and responsive when needed. For a very complex report I'd say 3 to 5 days.

That range ought to cover different developer skill levels. A senior person with good subject matter experience would be on the faster end of that range while a more junior resource will fall to the longer end. Any developer ought to be able to juggle several reports while waiting to hear back from users, etc.

An incomplete EDW can only mean that the Cognos components are incomplete also. You are going to have some difficulty ahead.

If it ain't tested and it ain't documented and it ain't approved by the user then it ain't done. Projects that estimate only for development are more apt to miss the mark as far as users are concerned.

[tjohnson3050]

Wow Lynn, that was an awesome response.  I was starting to do the math and figure out what skill set and experience would be required to crank out 5.1 reports and hour.  Even with the best agile process, the thought of less than 12 minutes per report is amusing.

You should put together some thoughts on how users can drive most report development with Cognos Workspace Advanced and then rely on IT to enhance and refine the reports with Cognos Report Studio, and share with a room full of people ;)

[FLPylot]

I apologize. That should have only been 20. We have a staff of 4 developers.

[Lynn]

Wow Lynn, that was an awesome response.  I was starting to do the math and figure out what skill set and experience would be required to crank out 5.1 reports and hour.  Even with the best agile process, the thought of less than 12 minutes per report is amusing.

You should put together some thoughts on how users can drive most report development with Cognos Workspace Advanced and then rely on IT to enhance and refine the reports with Cognos Report Studio, and share with a room full of people ;)

;D

If I did that I would totally steal your ideas about using clipboard fragments.  ;)

[calson33]

I apologize. That should have only been 20. We have a staff of 4 developers.

That would be possible, if...
You have very well defined requirements every time.
The reports are simple - No complex processing, no fancy formatting.
The data sources and models are are finished and do not need anything else.
The developers do NOTHING else - No troubleshooting, no customer interactions, no issues to resolve.

It would be pretty unrealistic in most companies.