Reporting is an integral factor to
any successful PPM deployment, and Microsoft is continuously investing in
reporting capabilities, making it bigger and better.
In this blog post, I will bring together
few recent updates to reporting options that can help get the best out of
Project (online and on-premises) data, and will share links to all the sources
available.
1.
SSRS – SQL Server Reporting
Services
SQL Server Reporting Services
are amazing, it enables you to create interactive, tabular, and graphical or
free form reports from relational, multidimensional, or XML-based data sources.
SSRS is the most powerful tool to surface data on to reports till date, from
simplest to highly complex reports, SSRS is your tool.
And now there are some good new
related to SSRS devotees, Microsoft has recently announced about the number of
enhancements to Reporting Services in SQL Server 2016.
SQL Server 2016 preview version
is already available for some time now, and Microsoft SQL team has released
number of new Reporting services features to preview version:
Few of the highlighted items are
as below:
· Pin
Reporting Services report items - Including charts, gauge panels, maps, and
images - to Power BI dashboards. Dashboard tiles always show up-to-date data
thanks to scheduled refresh. Click a dashboard tile to drill through to the
complete Reporting Services report.
· Design
reports using Visual Studio 2015 with an updated version of SQL Server Data
Tools.
· · Uses
.NET Framework 4.x code in report expressions, report code, referenced
assemblies, and extensions for report security, data processing, rendering, or
delivery.
Some more details here:
· · Position
report parameters the way you want : I am quite excited about this particular
enhancement, for the first time ever, you see the Parameters pane in Design
view, handing you, the report author, design-time control of parameter
positioning:
· · Export
reports to PowerPoint
· · Create
Treemap and Sunburst charts
· · Design
reports in an updated version of Report Builder with a modern theme
· · View
and interact with reports in modern browsers (thanks to a new HTML5-based
renderer)
· · Print
reports from modern browsers (without installing an ActiveX control)
Below is the summary of all the
information published till date:
1.
Power BI and Project Online
Power BI is around for some time
now, Microsoft Power BI is a collection of online services and
features that enables you to find and visualize data, share discoveries, and
collaborate in intuitive new ways.
In new Power BI experience,
Power BI displays dashboards on the Power BI service that are interactive, and
can be created and updated from many different data sources. Based on the same
technology as Power View, Power BI Desktop supports existing Power View reports
and provides the future path to a HTML5 based interactive report experience
on-premises.
In this blog post, I am
particularly interested in mentioning how the Project world can take leverage
of Power BI offerings.
Lately Power BI team has
introduced a Power BI pack for Project online users. The Project Online content
pack for Power BI allows you to explore your project data with
out-of-box metrics such overdue projects or a burn-down of current project work.
Also with new SSRS capabilities as
mentioned above, Pin to Dashboard, we can now pin any existing Project chart to
Power BI dashboard very easily. This help an end user in particular, to quickly
put together a nice dashboard using several existing SSRS reports without
seeking support from technical wizards.
Glimpse of few project reports
from Power BI pack are below:
