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Reporting
About Reports
Reports help you understand and assess the state of your project. An issue tracking system like Enterprise HelpDesk contains a lot of valuable information about a project. Reports allow you to access this information, break it down, analyze it, and present it.
Enterprise HelpDesk provides three types of reports: Summary (cross-tab), Listing, and Time (trend).
In addition to defining standard Listing reports in HelpDesk Admin, you can also use Crystal Reports (must be purchased separately) to customize Listing reports by adding features such as charts, formulas, field highlighting, and running totals.
Viewing Reports
Depending on the report format and definition, you can view reports as text or as line, bar, or pie charts. Charts can be in either 2D or 3D.
You can view Summary, Time, and Listing reports in HelpDesk Admin. You can also view Listing reports in Web views. By default, Web views use HTML to format and display Listing reports, and Crystal Reports 9.0 for custom reports (Enterprise HelpDesk includes the Crystal Reports 9.0 Runtime Software).
Changing Report Viewers
Options control which report viewers are used by the Web views:
To set these options, log on to HelpDesk Admin, and on the Tools menu, click Options.
To build custom reports, you need to change Standard Report Engine from HTML to Crystal Reports 9 or Crystal Reports 8.5. You also need to license the Report Creation API, because Enterprise HelpDesk has to create the initial .rpt file when you first view a Listing report. This initial .rpt file is the file that start with when you build a custom report.
Defining Reports
To design reports in HelpDesk Admin, click Reports on the Project menu, and then click Report Editor.
Selecting Which Issues to Include in a Report
In the Query list, choose a query to extract issues from the issue database and include them in the report. For example, if you want a report that breaks down the open issue count, then use the Open Issues query.
In Web views, users can use a combination of predefined and ad-hoc queries to specify what issues to include in a report. The Web-based report viewer allows users to generate reports using the current contents of the Summary List, or using the current issue.
Formatting the Report Page
In the Page list, choose a page to define the look of your report: page layout, title, headers, and footers. For example, a page can add page numbering to a report.
To use one report as a starting point for a new report, choose a report from the Report Name list and click Copy.
Summary Reports
About Summary Reports
Summary reports are like spreadsheets. They give you a numerical break down of the state of your project. Use Summary reports to answer questions like: What's the distribution of open issues among help desk analysts? How many of the open issues are urgent? Is there a relationship between department and issue priority?
Adding Rows
Each row corresponds to a possible value of a choice-list field (single or multi). For example, you can add rows for all users in the Owner list, or just for the help desk analysts in the list.
A “row” is something different in each type of report.
Text (cross-tab) reports
Each row is a row in the cross-tab table.
Bar charts
A bar chart shows bars for each row. That is, the “rows” define the horizontal axis, while the “column” defines what the bars represent.
If you don’t include a “column”, then there is one bar for each row. This bar represents the total number of issues for the row. If you include a “column”, then you get side-by-side bars for each row.
Pie charts
Each row is a slice of the pie. To ensure that the slices add up to 100%, select <All> in the Rows column.
Adding Columns
Each column corresponds to a possible value of a choice-list field (single or multi). For example, you can add columns for all possible priority values, or just for the highest priorities (ASAP, Next 4 Hours, Today).
Like rows, columns mean different things in the different report formats.
Text (cross-tab) reports
Each column is a column in the cross-tab table.
Bar charts
The column specifies what bars to display for each row.
Pie charts
Columns are not used in pie charts.
Calculating Totals
You can insert rows to calculate the totals of columns of numbers. Choose <Total> from the Field Name list. Then choose the groups for which you want a total.
A group is the set of rows for a given field. The Group column displays the group ID. When you add a total row, you use these IDs to specify which groups of rows you want to add up.
A Total row sums only the numbers in the selected groups. So each group of rows can have its own subtotal. To add a grand total, choose <ALL>.
To add a column that calculates the totals of rows of numbers, select the Total check box.
Using Totals and the Show Setting
Suppose you want to break down the open issue count, not by individual owner, but by groups of owners. For example, you might want to see the distribution of open issues between analysts and group leaders.
For both groups (Help Desk Analyst and Help Desk Group Leader), add a group of rows and a total row. The group of rows (for example, row 1 below) contains a row for each help desk analyst. The total row for analysts (row 2) totals up the individual numbers to give a group total.
Showing Totals for Groups
To hide the rows for the individual owners in a group, clear the Show check box.
Customizing Row and Column Headings
Use the Title fields to enter the heading text for rows and columns.
Controlling Column Width in Text Reports
Use the Column Width box to set a maximum width for all columns in a report, including the column headings.
Examples
Text (cross-tab) report
A Summary report can break down the open issue count by owner and by priority.
This example includes a row for each help desk analyst, and columns for the priorities ASAP, Next 4 Hours, Today, and Tomorrow. The report also includes totals.
Bar chart
Bar charts show data as vertical bars. If you have no columns (in the Columns list, click <None>), then the bar chart shows a total for each row.
If you add columns, then the bar chart shows a series of side-by-side bars for each value of the horizontal field. For example, you could show a breakdown by priority of the issues with Progress = New.
Pie charts
A pie charts shows a percentage breakdown of the issues. Each slice of the pie corresponds to a row. Since a whole pie represents 100%, you should select <All> in the Rows list.
Having more than one group of rows or a Total row won’t make sense in a pie chart (generally, you’ll be counting each issue twice if you have two groups of rows). If the report defines more than one group of rows or a Total row, clear the Show check box before you view the pie chart.
Columns are ignored in a pie chart.
Listing Reports
About Listing Reports
Listings extract and present subsets of the information entered in issues. Listings are available only as text.
Using Crystal Reports, you can customize a Listing report so that it is a cross-tab (Summary) or trend (Time) report.
Defining Listing Reports
Listing reports are listings of information entered in issues. Use Listing reports to extract specific information from issues.
For example, you might want to print out a summary of the resolution details for each resolved issue. Or you might want only the issue number, owner, and a summary of each issue. With Listing reports, you choose a set of issue fields, and only those fields are included in the report.
Query
Retrieves the issues included in the report
Sort
Sorts the issues.
Page
Header, footer, and title to apply to the report.
Tabular
Tabular listings list issues in the columns of a table. A tabular report is like the Summary List, except that you can use a report template to add things like a report title or page numbering.
Tabular Listing
Multicolumn
Multicolumn listings arrange issue information into blocks, which are repeated down the page for each issue.
Multicolumn Listing
Custom Report
Marks the report as a custom report. In a Web view, custom reports are listed on the Custom tab of the View Reports dialog box. Custom reports are typically Listing reports customized with Crystal Reports.
Time Reports
About Time Reports
Time reports show trends over time. Use Time reports to answer questions like: What's the issue arrival rate? What's the issue resolution rate? How fast are issues being resolved?
Defining Time Reports
Time reports show the relationship between the number of issues and time. For example, a Time report can show you the number of issues opened each week during the last month.
Defining the Time Axis
The time axis divides the reporting period into intervals of days, weeks, months, quarters, or years (this is the granularity of the report). The Time report then sorts the issues into the time intervals, and counts the number of issues in each interval.
To sort issues into time intervals, a Time report uses a master date. The master date is a date entered in an issue field such as Submitted Date, Closed Date, Assigned Date, or Update Date.
Including All Dates
Select the Show dates with no values check box to show days, weeks, months, quarters, and years when there were no issues. For example, in a report that shows the daily arrival rate of new issues during the last week, you probably want to see a value for each day in the week, even if that value is 0.
Showing Interval Totals
When the Cumulative check box is selected, a Time report accumulates the number of issues from one interval to the next. For example, suppose you have a Time report that shows the number of submitted issues per week. To see how the total number of submitted issues grows week by week, select the Cumulative check box. To see the number of issues submitted each week, clear the Cumulative check box.
Defining Reporting Periods
Enter specific From and To dates, or simply choose one of the When conditions: This Month, This Quarter, or This Year. You can also combine From or To with When. For example, if the year was 2004 and you set From to "3/3/04" and When to This Year, your reporting period would be 3/3/04 to 12/31/04.
Including Totals
Select the Total check box. For each time interval, the Time report will show the total number of issues included in the report.
Controlling Column Width in Tabular Time Reports
Use the Column Width box to set a maximum width for all columns in a report, including the column headings.
Defining the Field Axis
The field axis determines which issues a report counts. For example, to see the number of ASAP and Today priority issues, you choose these Priority field values as the columns. The Time report then counts the number of ASAP and Today priority issues in each interval.
Each “column” corresponds to a possible value of a choice-list field (single or multi). For example, you can add columns for all possible priority values, or just for the highest priorities (ASAP, Next 4 Hours, Today).
Text (cross-tab) reports
Each column is a column in the cross-tab table.
Line charts
Each column is a line in the line chart.
Bar charts
The column specifies what bars to display for each row.
If you set Field Name to <None>, then the Time report provides a total of all issues for each interval.
Defining Report Pages
Report pages define formatting elements common to every page of a report, such as headers, footers, and column layout. Report pages also define report titles. Pages can be shared by many reports, allowing you to define a standard look for all reports generated by Enterprise HelpDesk.
Enterprise HelpDesk comes with a set of predefined pages. You can adapt these templates to your specific requirements, or define entirely new pages.
To open the Page Editor:
On the Tools menu, click Report and then click Page Editor.
You can use the Page Editor to define headers, footers, and titles for your reports. In addition to typing and formatting plain text, you can insert placeholders for the current date, time, and page number. When you generate your report, these placeholders are replaced with the actual values.
 Vector Networks http://www.vector-networks.com Voice: +44 (0) 1827 67333 Fax: +44 (0) 1827 67068 info@vector-networks.co.uk |
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