IBM Cognos Analytics - Modeling for Combination Analysis - HR Example

Summary

In certain situations, report consumers would like to analyze combinations of disparate facts in the context of some common dimensional attributes rather than treat each fact independently in a sub query and then merge the results together. The latter is what IBM Cognos Analytics does when performing a multi-fact query and is referred to by IBM Cognos as a "stitch query". Stitch queries are explained in more detail in the attached document.

Some types of analysis can present scenarios where stitch queries are not desired. This is sometimes the case with HR data. For example, rather than seeing how many people speak Spanish as a secondary language in a division of the organization as well as how many people are sales representatives in an organization, analysts may want to see how many Spanish speaking sales representatives there are in a division; a direct correlation between the two. Stitch queries don't always present a one-to-one correlation between the facts returned.

This document will present a technique that will avoid stitch queries and allow for combination analysis and explain the caveats associated with the technique.

Please see the attached document for complete details.