Saturday, July 12, 2014

Decision Package Creation falls due to “An error occurred while running the specified calc script”

Author:-Sanjay Purohit
 Audience:-Hyperion Solution Architect, Functional Lead and Hyperion Business User.
The Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting (PSPB) out of box Decision Packages (DP) and Budget Request (BR) functionality is not straight forward. The word “Out of Box” really confuses customers. Customers assume no configuration and setups are required to use this functionality. However the assumption is completely wrong. The setup of DP requires functional understanding of business with Hyperion Planning technical knowledge. The first and most import step of DP setup is modification of pre-built business rule “BIUpdateXXXXXXX”. DP enabled application creates BIUpdate(name of plan type) rule for each plan type. Creation and modification of DP runs this rule on planning server. This rule updates values on Essbase to track recurring and non-recurring budget request.  I was not aware about this fact and try to create a baseline decision packet and got the below given error.



Objective
The purpose of this article is to provide you an understanding of BIUpdateXXXX rule and modification requirement before to create decision packages. If decision package option is enabled during the application creation process; it will create BIupdateXXXXXX rule for each plan type (Where XXXX denotes the plan type name).  Since custom dimension are added after the application creation. The application creation process does not know what member to add in the rule. However this theory does not apply on HCP plan type because HCP comes with Out of box dimension and no modification is required at most of the time.  The modification of BIupdateXXX rule is only required on custom plan types where you have to add custom dimension. The default rule creates a fix statement with “FIX ("Period", "Year", "Entity",{Scenario}, {Version})”member combination. This combination is perfect if we don’t add any custom dimension but most of the time we have to add custom dimension to meet requirements.

how To

I will take an example from one of my application where I had few custom dimensions. The default rule does not have all the members and will not work for below given outline. Let say, if we have to update BIUpdateXXX rule as per the below given dimension. I will go ahead and add (UnspecifiedActivity,Unspecified CIPProject,Totalnd,UnspecifiedLocation, and so on  to each dimensions). These unspecified members will be used to tack data in BIUpdateXXX rule.  


 After updating the rule should look like:-


After modification save/validate/deploy the business rule in calculation manager. You would need to modify BIUpdate business rule in all custom plan types. HCP plan type can be ignored. 

Now try creating a DP. You should not see any error. Please read the Oracle document  for more information

Friday, July 11, 2014

Decision Packages and Budget Request with Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting Application

Author:-Sanjay Purohit

Audience: Hyperion Solution Architects, Functional Lead and Hyperion Business users
The Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting (PSPB) come with out of box Decision Packages (DP) and Budget Request (BR) functionality. This functionality was a core selling point of Oracle PSPB sales team to municipal, city and state governments. Government highly uses DP during the budget formulation process.  However the out of box functionality requires some setup and does not meet most of requirements. We will cover a brief overview of DP and BR. We will also demonstrate the initial setup of decision packages.

Objective
The purpose of this article is to provide you brief information about DP/BR and also provide you an overview of setup process. I will also demonstrate the life cycle (The entire approval process) of decision packages in my next posting posting. Before we start, let me write something about DP/BR; and how they are used during the budget formulation.
Decision Packages (DP): - The DP is one of the primary elements to formulate government budget. The DP is a mechanism for department/division to make convincing case of their proposal. The DP puts all narrative justification, associated financial cost, required man power together and allows department head or staff member to submit an incremental/onetime request funding request. The budget office really depends on DP justification to make any judgment.
Budget Request (BR):- Each decision package may contain one or multiple budget requests for funding a position, hiring an employee or operating expenses. All BRs aggregate to decision package and follows a promotion path.  BR can have narrative justification and the text can be mapped to budget book publication. However the reporting options are limited.

Decision Package Highlights:-
·         Decision package option should be enabled during the application creation otherwise this functionality will not be available. This functionality is only available with Classic planning application. EPMA does not qualify. JJJJ
·          If a user creates a decision package and define display alias for entity; the alias of entity will display on decision package creation screen. ( only user  friendly function)
·         Budget request and decision package can be ranked in an order as per department/budgeting office priority.
·         Decision package provides flexibility of including and excluding a DP from total budget.
·         Decision packages follow the master planning unit hierarchy (PUH) but can be configured a specific approval path. Admin also needs to assign scenario and version to PUH/DP.
·         The promotion of decision packages triggers validation rules on planning server. The DP will not be promoted if any validation rule fails or givens error.
·         Decision package provides a flexibility of sharing with multiple entities/cost centers.
·         Planning BSO cube has limitation; Oracle recommends pushing the entire compensation budget, operating budget and decision package data to ASO cube.
·         Decision packages are primary built for Public Sector Planning and Budgeting application. But if users wish to use DP enable application will not able to use mass update such as overwrite compensation or allocation default.
·         Decision package cannot be deleted if it is being shared or have not zero value.
·         Users can not terminate employee in non-recurring budget request. Termination of employees of employee is only supported on recurring budget request.
·         Decision packages have reporting limitation. Only few reporting option are available to report DP and BR.
·         Baseline decision package represents current service level of organization budget and new decision package can be added on top of it.
·         User must have write access to own and edit decision package and view access to view.
·         Decision package is capable of delta capture budget request.
·         Users can add notes/comments and attach notes to explain decision package.
·         Administrator needs to create BR_1 …BR_2… and…. BR_& members to hold decision packages.

how To

Creation of BR Members: - Admin user should create BR_ member for users.  I am going to crate 30 member in below given example. The new created members will be used with DP



Creation of DP Type: - DP types are a way to organize the DP.  I have created new DP type Operational & Personal. The admin can create DP type by going to Administration>Manage>Decision Package>Decision Package Type. Each Type of DP should have following. The PSPB comes with two default DP types.
  • All Decision Packages
  • Compensation Expenses


Data Collection Forms: - Admin can assign any decision package compatible data form under this tab by clicking plus sign


Reporting Application Mapping: - DP provides a functionality to push data to reporting cubes. Oracle recommends using ASO cube for reporting application



Rollup Member: - Setting up of rollup members is required to see the data on DP and BR level. Admin roll-up members and write a business rule according. I have setup the roll up as per my dimension needs. The roll up of HCP cube comes out of box (Default) Please see Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting guide for more info.


Justification Questionnaire: - This is the place to setup an explanation or addition information that users must enter before to submit any decision package.  



Decision Packages Type Attributes:- DP attributes can created for reporting purpose