Ben Sullins Tech

Quick one here…I was recently setting up a SSRS 2008 dev environment integrated with a MOSS 2007 dev environment and encountered some strange problems with the SSRS 2008 Add-In for SharePoint. Basically every time it would run and state the installation was “interrupted” and nothing was changed. To my frustration nothing appeared to be wrong with the MOSS or SSRS setups however I did notice an error in the event viewer related to access to the SQL Server database. It turns out that wasn’t the problem either. There seems to be an issue with the rsSharePoint[_x64].msi installer as mentioned in Prash’s blog here (http://blogs.msdn.com/prash/…)

To overcome this hurdle you must follow the following steps:

1. Open a command prompt with “Run as Administrator…”
2. Run rsSharePoint.msi SKIPCA=1.
3. Locate rsCustomAction.exe file on the file system. This file is copied to your computer by rsSharePoint.msi and is generally located in the C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Temp directory.
4. Run rsCustomAction.exe /i

You will see lots of messages similar to those below in the command window but it will eventually finish and you’re setup of the SSRS 2008 Add-In for your MOSS 2007 environment will be complete.

Hope this helps!

Recently I was on a call with a client and one of their IT guys asked if the Microsoft Business Intelligence stack can do everything Exclesius can do. In short, the answer is sorta. Through reporting services the MS BI stack can provide similar functionality however, it cannot provide the flash animations you get in Excelsius. The good news is however, that Excelsius can use the MS BI stack as a source for its data. This means if a client has already invested in Excelsius they can still reap the benefits of using the Microsoft Business Intelligence stack and are not locked in to using Business Objects for their entire Business Intelligence platform. I have included some links below of Excelsius demo’s you can view if you’re unfamiliar. Hope this helps!

Excelsius Demos – link

Business Objects SharePoint Integration Options – PDF

Just had some ideas from class tonight regarding Earned Value Analysis (EVA). If you’re unfamiliar with EVA google it and you’ll find it is basically a way to measure a projects performance. Microsoft has a small ‘about’ page found here that might help as well – http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/HP010342581033.aspx

The three key elements of EVA are:

1. Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled
2. Actual Cost of Work Performed
3. Budgeted Cost of Work Performed

These are the ‘Measures’ of the project. The Key Performance Indicators you can derive based on these measures are:

1.  Cost Variance
2.  Schedule Variance

Sounds just like a dashboard right? Anyone interested in coming up with a PerformancePoint dashboard with these metrics based on Visual Studio Team Foundation Server? I know I am…