How to create OBIEE What-Analysis?

Question

Dear genius,

I got a new task to create what if analysis in OBIEE, but I have no idea what that is and how to create it. Is anyone familiar with it? Could you give me a sample or guide about how to create the what-if analysis(predictive analysis)?

Many thanks,

Michael

Gianni Ceresa · Answer

If you have an Essbase cube have a look at OBIEE Samples  , they have some examples about how to write values to the cube and how to execute a calc script from OBIEE. The only "issue" you will have to manage is that the calc script run independently and the code you use to execute it will tell it started but then it's up to you to know when it's over so you can refresh the analysis on screen.

3412639 · Answer

Thanks a lot Ceresa!

I know what is WHAT-IF analysis. But don't know how to create it in OBIEE. The business is like  that you mentioned use Essbase Cube to show predictive result when user enter/change parameters. It is about salary forecasting, so the user want to change wage base and see the impacted forecasting. Could you share some links or doc so I can learn to make it in OBIEE?

Best

Gianni Ceresa · Answer

Hi,

Google is the best place to find out what a "what-if analysis" is.

For example that's how Microsoft define it for Excel: What-If Analysis is the process of changing the values in cells to see how those changes will affect the outcome of formulas on the worksheet.

So what kind of what-if analysis are you supposed to make? Because a "what-if analysis" is 100% business: you must know what are the factors that you want to change to evaluate their impact. It's not really a technical thing.

And based on what the business want to analysis with that analysis, the parameters they want and their complexity you will have many different solution to do that.

So first get the real business requirements!

PS: if you really want to make a random one the idea is to have prompts so the user can enter/change values for some parameters and the analysis show the result using the newly provided parameters. A more complex what-if with lot of dependencies and complex calculations often use an Essbase cube where you enter  the parameters, run a calc script and the cube give you back the new figures in a different scenario and you can have analysis comparing the scenarios etc.