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204 Moving Forward with the On Demand Real-time Enterprise

The information in the History database is replicated from the Runtime database.

The History database contains dynamic tables that are created according to the

deployed business measures model. The schema generator generates the

History database schema, which is used to create dynamic tables, and Cube

Views definitions.

The History database is used by the Monitor dashboards. The dashboards

retrieve the data required to populate some views from the History database. For

example, the Reports view focuses on analyzing data extracted from the History

database.

4.4.6 The Monitor dashboards

Business Monitor has WebSphere Portal-based dashboards that can be

customized with a predefined set of configurable views that are implemented via

portlets. A dashboard designer with WebSphere Portal skills can take these

portlets and configure them or create custom dashboards. Some of these view

types will leverage DB2 Alphablox for a more refined data analysis.

Measuring the process using the Dashboard Client component of WebSphere

Business Monitor Version 6.0 enables users to monitor business performance

through a set of views. The following are examples of those views, that can be

combined to create dashboards:

Scorecard view

A scorecard is a set of performance measures that are linked to objectives and

goals of a specific business area. Business users select the KPIs pertaining to

their various areas of responsibility and place them in perspectives (categories)

on their scorecards. On the Scorecards view, users can easily watch the runtime

values of vital numeric KPIs, monitoring them against their defined targets. This

is depicted in Figure 4-51.

Figure 4-51 Scorecard View

Chapter 4. IBM technologies supporting real-time 205

KPI view

This view shows the values of individual KPIs, focusing on the position of the KPI

value relative to its defined limits. It displays all KPI information so that business

users can easily monitor them and take action if necessary, as depicted in

Figure 4-52. For this, you must have a business measures model that contains

the KPIs to be monitored, with their threshold limits.

Figure 4-52 KPI View

Gauge view

This view displays individual KPI values, either relative to KPI threshold value or

relative to the KPI target value. It visually uses a paradigm of physical

instruments in the form of gauges and dials, such as automobile speedometers

or temperature gauges. This is depicted in Figure 4-53.

Gauges help you to visualize information by representing KPI values. They have

a focus on representing numeric KPIs that belong to aggregated business

measures in a business measures model. Each gauge represents the value of a

single KPI.

206 Moving Forward with the On Demand Real-time Enterprise

Figure 4-53 Gauge View

Active Instance view

This view shows the details of processes, which contain a group of related

metrics, KPIs and situations in a particular process. The monitor view can

monitor either individual instances or groups of process instances. This is in

addition to providing the capabilities to perform drill-down and drill-up among

child and parent instances.

The Active Instances view shows the details of a process at run time, and

displays information about running instances. You can monitor values of KPIs

and metrics that belong to an aggregate business measures group, along with

stopwatches and counters. You can also drill down to view the underlying

activities, such as items in process instances, and whether they are realized by

activities, local subprocesses, or global subprocesses.

The Active Instances portlet is shown in Figure 4-54, and consists of a Active

Instances table that displays the business measures of each currently running

process instance.