Overview
This course provides participants with a high-level overview of the IBM Cognos Analytics Dashboard tool and its underlying architecture. They will explore the powerful features of IBM Cognos Analytics dashboards to transform raw data into actionable insights. Through interactive lessons, practical exercises, and real-world scenarios, learners will gain the skills to create, customize, and share dynamic dashboards that drive data-informed decisions.
Learners will gain hands-on experience through exercises that enhance their ability to create and customize dashboards, stories, and explorations.
By the end of this course, learners should be proficient in creating and customizing dashboards, using Cognos Analytics tools and AI Assistant, integrating and visualize data from multiple sources, employing advanced features like 3D maps, forecasting, and drill-through definitions to enhance insights, and much more.
Audience
This course is intended for data professionals in multiple roles: business analysts, report authors, developers, data administrators, data modelers, project managers, and technical users who are involved in data preparation, reporting, and business intelligence within their organization.
Prerequisites
Participants should have the following skills:
- An understanding of your organization’s business intelligence process and reporting needs
- Experience using basic Windows functionality
- An understanding of Cognos reporting
Objective
After completing this course, learners should be able to:
- Customize dashboard visualizations
- Explore and use AI Assistant for dashboard design
- Select and integrate at least two different types of data sources into a dashboard
- Customize a dashboard with widgets
- Configure a dashboard with interconnected visualizations
- Adjust the timeline of objects in a scene to control appearance and disappearance during playback
- Create an exploration from a data source
- Apply forecasting techniques to predict future trends using historical data in visualizations
- Apply cascading filters to guide logical data exploration in dashboards
Course Outline
Unit 1: Introduction to Dashboards
- Define key features of dashboards
- Identify dashboard interface components
- Upload data files for dashboard creation
- Customize dashboard visualizations
- Explore and use the AI Assistant for dashboard design
Unit 2: Create a Basic Dashboard
- Select and integrate at least two different types of data sources into a dashboard
- Add visualizations to a dashboard using drag-and-drop, AI Assistant queries, and Pinned tabs
- Customize a dashboard with widgets
- Share a dashboard with custom configurations
Unit 3: Advanced Dashboard Functions
- Implement filters into a dashboard
- Configure a dashboard with interconnected visualizations
- Use the Visualization feature to change the type of a chart in an advanced dashboard and customize the chart’s properties
- Use the AI Assistant to generate relevant visualizations
- Apply natural language queries and refine output with filters and aggregations
Unit 4: Create a Story
- Create a basic story by adding scenes and integrating visualizations and animations
- Adjust the timeline of objects in a scene to control appearance and disappearance during playback
- Enhance a story by adding animations to objects and highlighting key data points to emphasize insights
Unit 5: Create an Exploration
- Explain the purpose and advantages of using Explorations, including how they reveal insights and correlations
- Create an exploration from a data source
- Interact with the Relationship Diagram to filter unique fields, select starting points, and generate corresponding visualizations
Unit 6: Visualizations
- Identify and describe at least five types of visualizations, including their appropriate use cases
- Demonstrate how to configure a drill-through definition for a visualization in a dashboard
- Apply forecasting techniques to predict future trends using historical data in visualizations
- Create and import a custom visualization into a dashboard, ensuring its integration and usability
Unit 7: Features in Cognos Analytics 11.2
- Demonstrate how to create and manipulate 3D hexbin maps
- Customize visualization properties, such as bullet charts and axis-specific formatting in a dashboard
- Apply cascading filters to guide logical data exploration in dashboards
- Utilize and customize tooltip features to add context to data visualizations
