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Ontario Cognos BI Group

Hello Everybody! 

The OCBIG will be conducting it’s very first ever OCBIG Report Challenge!!!

Why Have a Competition

This is a friendly competition between members of the OCBIG user group to demonstrate their technical/creative wizardry.

 The objectives of this competition are:

      a)        To see creative ways in which other developers are using the Cognos products.

b)        To see how other developers solved tricky technical problems.

c)        To get ideas how we could improve our own reports / reporting environments either technically or visually.

d)        To get peer recognition for great ideas.

e)        To have a little fun at work, without getting caught.

f)          To win cooool prizes.

How does the Report Challenge Work?

The concept is simple but, at the same time, too tricky to be structured rigorously.  Hence, there is a lot of flexibility.

Here is how it will work:

1)        You find something that you are especially proud of.  It could be:

a)       a report

b)       dashboard

c)       technique

d)       architecture

e)       report layout

f)         other

 

It could be in any Cognos product, Cognos component, or script/technique related to a Cognos implementation. 

 

2)        Produce screen prints of any screens and/or gather scripts.

 

3)        Delete/edit any confidential data and get approval to release the information, if necessary - you need to be careful. 

 

4)        Write a document describing all, or some, of the following points (Remember, this is a friendly challenge not a formal examination of your documentation style so don’t kill yourself over this.):

 

a.        The Why: Description of the Challenge/Need of the report/code.

b.        The Where: Description of where the information was coming from (more focused on the architecture and if multiple databases were being used).

c.        The What: Description of the importance of the report and what it provides.  The unique advantages of the code (the “cool” part of it).  This could be a difficult problem that was solved or a great report display.

d.        The Who: Who the report/code is being used by.

e.        The How: How the goal was achieved?  You can include any headaches that cropped up that you needed to solve.

f.          The Enhancements:  Ideas of how it could be improved in the future (if you had unlimited time and budget) or how it could work in a different environment.

g.        The Gotcha’s: Lessons learned.   

Click here to download a Submission Form Template.

 

5)        Zip the files together and submit them to the following email address:

 

report_challenge@ocbig.org

             

Judging

Judging will be performed by the OCBIG executive members. 

 

Prizes

Prizes will include:  

a)        The top three winners will receive 1 of 3 iPodTM Touch (donated by Cognos)

b)        Gift certificates

Rules

1)        Open to any member of the OCBIG user group.

2)        Please remember that this is a friendly completion.  We expect that all the submissions will display exceptional talent but, for the sake of competition, not everyone will necessarily win.

3)        No kicking or biting the competition (unless the judges are watching J).


Timeline

Submissions will now be accepted up to 5pm on November 14 2008

 

If you have any questions, please send them to:

 

report_challenge@ocbig.org