Christmas came early last week when a copy of the First PPS book to be published dropped through our letter box - Thanks Nick and Adrian :)
For those of you aren't familiar with Rational Guides the format is designed to get you up and running with a product rather than be an in-depth technical reference and this is exactly what the authors achieve with this book. I suspect that Nick wrote the majority of this book whilst Adrian will have more focus on the upcoming companion book
Following the introduction the book is split into:
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Installation and Configuration;
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The elements (a chapter on each of the core dashboard elements); and
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Implementation and Management (Deploying and securing PPSM)
and flows nicely from one chapter to the next with writing at a suitable level - not ridiculously technical and not condescending. The KPI chapter I found particularly useful as this is one of the deeper areas of PPSM.
Whilst not wanting to sound like a free advert, this is an excellent book for getting started and reaching a good level with PPS M&A. If you are looking for a hardcore technical guide to PerformancePoint then:
a) other than what's on technet, it doesn't exist yet!; and
b) this isn't it.
Having said that, the authors point out a number of quirks, bugs and pitfalls of PPS M&A that you might never find out otherwise. Definitely a recommended read for anyone who wants to get up and running with PPSM
One thing to note is that although ProClarity is marketed as the "Analyze" component of PerformancePoint it is not covered in this book - that's easily a book in itself!
The latest version of SQL Books Online details the features of Reporting Services that are available in Sharepoint Integration mode and, more importantly, the features that aren't!! Be careful if you plan to migrate as there are some surprising omissions:
URL addressing is different in SharePoint integrated mode. SharePoint URLs are used to reference reports, report models, shared data sources, and resources. The report server folder hierarchy is not used. (This basically means no querystring parameters!!!)
Reporting Services custom security extensions cannot be deployed or used on the report server. The report server includes a special-purpose security extension that is used whenever you configure a report server to run in SharePoint integrated mode. This security extension is an internal component, and it is required for integrated operations.
Report Manager or Management Studio cannot be used to manage a report server instance that is configured for SharePoint integration.
Data-driven subscriptions are not available. This applies to all editions.
The rs.exe command line utility is not supported. The utility does not support the SOAP endpoint used for programmatic access to a report server that runs in SharePoint integrated mode.
Linked reports are not supported.
My Reports is not supported.
Job management features that allow you to stop a long-running report process are not supported.
Batching methods will not be supported.
I haven't tested it yet but I have a feeling this might mean that the PerformancePoint Planning operational reports may not work in this mode
The online (!) Books Online article is here
I was invited to Redmond last Friday to help with preparation of the new 71-556 PerformancePoint exam. I can't give away too much about what we were doing without violating my NDA but I got to meet some very cool people from MS and beyond:
(Left to right) Eric Melcher, Tim Kashani, Russ Damske, Alyson Powell Erwin, Alvin ***, Jesper Wittendorf and yours truly
The exam should be out of beta early next year...