Testing Approach

The following testing to be done at the Cognos Report testing.. 

1. Header and Footer validation
2. Prompts Validation
3. Database Validation
4. Buzz matrix validation
5. Functional validation 
6. Hierarchical Validation
7. Validation of Charts
8. Validation of Reports
9. Security Validation
10. GUI Validation 

To validate the data a SQL query needs to be framed and the result of the same should be compared against the data in the report. The generic SQL query for a report should contain all the necessary tables, the joins and the overall filters that have been identified as the reports requirements. 

• Check weather all the required fields appear on the prompts page as per the BRD
• Check weather a red line/astreik  appears  below all the mandatory as defined in the BRD 
• Check the GUI element type (List box,text box, radio button,check box ,calendar drop down box for the each report.
• Check weather the multiselect field allow multiples values to be selected . 
• Check whether the contents of each field are based on security entitlements of the user running the report. 
• Check whether the run button is enabled only when all the mandatory fields are selected. 

Security :

Security can be implemented in Cognos for all reports. The security profiles of the users who can run the reports are stored in the back end tables. When a user generates a report, data from the database gets filtered out based on that user’s security profile

IBM Cognos Report Testing

Cognos Testing

Decision making is vital role  in any organization for its growth and development. A decision support system assists the management in decision making activities. They are knowledge based systems which transform the raw data into useful information. The information thus retrieved acts as the primary source for the management to arrive at critical decisions

The Listed Below are the Reporting thats majorly available in market. 

1. Cognos

2.OBIEE

3.Microstrategy

4.SAPBO

Here i am writing about the  Blog for Cognos report testing. 

IBM Cognos is a user friendly reporting tool which gives the full fledged of reporting for the analytical Business 

Public Folders (Shared): This folder contains all the reports grouped under their respective folders/packages.

My Folders: The generated report outputs are saved here.

My Preferences – User can set their own preferences (Number of reports to be viewed in a list, Report format, Time Zone etc.)

My Activities and schedules-The status of report execution can be viewed under the following tabs:

Upcoming Activities – The reports that are scheduled to run at the specified point of time in future.

Current Activities-The reports that are currently under execution.

Past Activities –The reports that have completed execution (Succeeded/Failed).

Cognos HomePage.

Cognos Contains five types of Studios which are listed below. 

1. Report Studio

Used to create reports that analyze business data according to specific information needs.

2.Query Studio: Used to create simple queries and reports. This can be used to view data, create reports, modify their appearance, drill up/drill down data

3.Analysis Studio: Used for analysis and exploration of large data sources. Cubes which assist in analyzing multidimensional data are available in Cognos Analysis Studio

4.Event Studio:Used to create and manage agents that respond to events.

5.Metric Studio: Metric Studio contains all the measures. 

Formatted Reports:  As the name suggests, these reports are built with a specific format as defined by the users’ requirements. These are commonly generated in PDF format.

Canned Reports:Canned Reports are pre-defined reports with static elements and fixed structure. The requirements for these reports are obtained from the users in the form of a document. These are usually generated in Excel format.

Cubes:Cube is primarily a tool of pre-aggregated information that allows users to interactively drag and drop data elements and measures. It helps to explore and analyze data to get to the details and reason behind an event or action so as to improve business performance.

Cubes contains all aggregated data which improves the performance of the report. 

In the next post i will be writing about the Cognos testing approach ..