BO Questionnaire

1. Who invented BI?

BI was conceptualized by Gartner in 1980s.

2. Describe BO architecture

BO architecture consists of:

• Enterprise Information management(Data Integrator): Is the ETL tool of BO

• BI Platform (Universe Designer): Middleware between Enterprise and BI

reporting

• Report, Query and Analysis: WebI, DeskI and Crystal reports (not supported by
BO Enterprise Suite)

• Performance management(Dashboard): To monitor Business via alerts,

scorecards, analytics and reports

3. Give 5 server names?

4. Give server details.

Servers can be categorized as:

• Web services:

o Web application server: Gateway between browser and various BO

services

o Web Component Adapter: Gateway for Crystal Reports to provide

backward compatibility. Resides within the Web application server.

• Management services:

o Central Management Server: manages user authentication and audit

database for user logs/actions

o Event Server: processes file-based schedules of reports

 o Destination Server: sends existing instances or objects to Email, printer,
ftp

• Storage services:

o Input File Repository: Stores created/ updated report structure to the

system.

o Output File repository: Stores the report instance generated by various job
servers.

o Crystal Report Cache Server: Saves database requests of crystal reports

into temporary cache for reuse with other report request, thereby
preventing database overload and allowing sharing of among users

o Desktop Intelligence Cache server: Similar to Crystal report cache server

for deskI reports

• Processing services:

o Program job server: To process 3rd party reports like Word, Excel

o List of Value job server: Temporary cache for storing database request of
list of values data.

o Connection Server: databases connectivity to access organization data.

o Crystal Report Job Server: Processes time based scheduling of crystal

reports.

o Crystal Report Page Server: processes viewing of crystal reports viewed

using ActiveX, java and DHTML viewer.

o Reports Application Server: processes viewing of crystal reports viewed

using advanced DHTML viewer.

o Desktop Intelligence Job Server: Processes time based scheduling of

DeskI reports.

o Desktop Intelligence Report Server: processes viewing of DeskI reports.

o Web Intelligence Job Server: Processes time based scheduling of WebI

reports.

o Web Intelligence Report Server: processes viewing of WebI reports.

5. Give difference between folders and categories.

Folders store reports. Categories define the category a report belongs to. BO Report is
stored in a single folder but can belong to multiple categories.

6. Describe the various authentication types of BO.

Authentication types of BO are:

• Enterprise: default

• Windows NT: for Single sign on. Maps to user and password of the windows
machine.

• LDAP:

• Standalone: Not connected with Central management server.

7. Describe the rights of users/groups.

User/group rights are:

• Inherited: inherit from group level.

• No access: temporary disabling access to the reports for this user/group

• View: grant only view option to the reports

• Full control: grant all the access to the reports

• Customized: Explicitly granted/denied/not specified(not sure, access inherited

from the group)

8. Describe the rights of objects/folders.

Objects/Folders rights are:

• Inherited: inherit from folders

• No access: Temporary disabling the access to the folders

 • View: grant only view access for reports

• View and schedule: grant viewing as well as scheduling of reports

• View and Refresh: grant viewing, scheduling and refreshing access of reports

• Full Control: grant all rights to folders

• Advanced: explicitly grant/deny/not specified rights.

9. Describe the 3 type of connections in Universe

• Personal: restricts the access to data to the creator of the universe and the system on
which it is created. This type of connection is unsecured.

• Shared: Allows access to data for a team of users. These connections are unsecured.

• Secured: Centralizes and controls the access to data. It is the safest type of
connection. This type of connection should be used when exporting the universe to
repository and distributing it through Central Management Server.

10. Describe loops and methods to resolve them

Loops are a collection of joins that form a closed path. Loops return Cartesian product
thereby retrieving more records than required.

Loops are resolved by:

• Alias: break the loop by making an alias of a table.

• Context: is collection of joins giving valid path. Preferred where there are lots of
loops and tables.

11. Give the difference between fan trap and chasm trap.

12. How do you test Universe?

To test universe check for:

• Database connectivity.
 • Classes and object map to tables and columns of database

• Check for Joins

• Check for cardinalities

• Check for Loops

• Check if loops are resolved.

13. Describe the 3 qualification types of objects.

Measure: Numerical value in object used for comparisons eg. Revenue of company

Detail: descriptive value eg., height, phone number of employee.

Dimension: object used for multidimensional analysis eg., city.

14. How do you link universe?

In BO Designer, from File Menu -> Parameters -> Links tab on Universe Parameters box.
Click Add link to link the universe. The linking universe should be exported and
imported from repository before linking.

15. Give the difference between condition and filter.

Condition Filter
Condition is inserted in query Filter set on selected data
panel column in a report

it can retrieve the data which it can hide the data at

meets the condition. it can report level
restrict at the database level

help to increase the query query performance is slow

performance

16. Give 3 differences between Desk Intelligence and Web Intelligence.

DeskI WebI
 Requires client installation on Requires no installation. We
local machine work on the server for
report creation

Can store report in the Can store report in

repository as well as local repository only
machine

Reports can use sources such Reports only use universe

as flat file, excel besides as source
universe

17. Give difference between Global and local filter.

Local filter applies to single block, single table, single chart on a report where as global
filter would apply to all the blocks, tables and charts on a give report.

18. Give the difference between drill up, drill down and drill through.

Drill is used to navigate up or down the levels of a hierarchy.

• Drill up: moves one level up in a hierarchy.

• Drill down: moves one level down in a hierarchy

• Drill through: to drill data from one hierarchy to another.

19. Give difference between break and section.

Break: breaks the data in the table on selected value (column) only in appearance. The
underlying data is maintained as one table.

Section: Creates blocks. Data is distributed in separate block with separate tables for
each selected value (column), thereby giving an appearance of master/detail report.

20. Is rank and sort compatible? If not, why.

 Rank and sort are exclusive, meaning they cannot be applied at the same time on the
same column in a single report. If applied it throws a warning filter/sort already applied,
do you want to overwrite?

21. How would you resolve data synchronization?

Measures and details objects of two different data providers can be added to the report.
However dimension objects cannot be added to the report unless it is synchronized. To
obtain a synchronized report, we would have to link the two data providers on a common
object/variable. Once the data providers are linked a new variable will have to be created
on the dimension object to add into the report.