Cubewise TM1 Documenter - Understand your TM1 model

Reduce the project risk associated with your TM1 implementation; get information "out of people's heads" and into a properly controlled knowledge management system specific to your TM1 model. 

Due to small support footprint, rapid development cycle and specialised skill set, many organizations' TM1 implementations are especially exposed to key man risk.  Historically TM1 model documentation has been poor, and when working with a database that can change rapidly to meet new or altered business requirements, more often than not documentation can't keep up and rapidly becomes obsolete.  As TM1 is a business critical financial reporting tool such lack of documentation raises real audit compliance risks.  These are common fears and concerns that we hear often from our client base.

Cubewise TM1 Documenter offers a one stop shop solution to the problems above.  The Documenter is built in TM1 and resides within your TM1 installation and is a living knowledge management system that updates as your TM1 model changes and grows, providing a framework that is always current and up to date.  The TM1 Documenter reduces by an order of magnitude, the time and effort required to properly document a TM1 model.

Complete System Dashboard

The Cubewise TM1 Documenter provides a dashboard overview of the complete TM1 model. An internal control panel that reads the server configuration file and license file making this information available to administrators without accessing the database directory. The TM1 Documenter is easy to install requiring no additional software and nothing except for a restart of the TM1 service. Available either in Excel, TM1 Web or Executive Viewer format.

Security Overview

Instantly see which clients are members of which groups, identify orphan groups and orphan clients and see which cubes, dimensions, processes and chores groups have access to. See which clients are connected, who has administrator access and check password settings and expiry with the user security dashboard.

Cube Documentation

The TM1 Documenter delivers fingertip access to pertinent cube information such as data logging, memory consumption, last update, and rules and provides the critical framework for documenting descriptive information such as data source, business owner, update frequency and measure, version and time dimensions with a visual check to documentation status. The cube detail browser lists cube views, dimensions and groups with access to each cube. The cube rule documenter counts lines of rule and feeder code and comments, lists the text contents of the rule file and determines whether a XRU rule worksheet exists for the cube. Memory consumption is documented by cube.

Dimension Documentation

The TM1 Documenter delivers all system information such as dimension levels, number of hierarchies, attributes and elements and the last update, and provides the framework for documenting descriptive information such as data source, business owner and update frequency, with a visual check to documentation status. The dimension detail browser lists subsets, attributes, hierarchies, cubes which use each dimension and groups with access to each dimension.

Chore & Process Documentation

Chore schedule status and frequency is listed with the capacity to add descriptive text.  Drill through to summary documentation listing the processes in each chore.

All relevant system information such as data source, number of parameters and variables and lines of code by process tab is automatically generated.  Drill through to listing of parameters, variables, source query or TI code.  The Documenter also provides the framework for further descriptive documentation as required.

Additional Documentation

The TM1 Documenter also provides all relevant system information and provides a documentation framework for:

• Application folder entries
• Detailed cube view information
• Detailed dimension subset and attribute information
• Private views
• Private subsets

While nothing can absolve the need to physically enter descriptive information, the Cubewise TM1 Documenter shortens the time required for this task and makes the job many times easier by providing not just a framework to enter documentation based on TM1 database structure but a living adaptive framework based on your TM1 model that adapts and changes as the underlying model adapts and changes.  With a strong framework in place the requirement of timely and accurate documentation is easily fulfilled.

As all documentation resides in its own TM1 database all data is secure and can be flexibly reported on through a variety of media.  The out of the box documentation reports are sufficient and extensive, however any additional reports can be quickly and easily developed.

System Requirements

• IBM Cognos TM1 9.0 & above
• Excel 2003 & above