Analytic Object Settings
Learn more about the settings available for analytic objects and how to change them.
Overview
Analytic objects have several modifiable settings. These settings allow you to configure the core content and behavior of an analytic object, such as its associated subject or event and its default metric.
General analytic object settings
These general settings are common to multiple types of analytic objects.
Captions
Captions help the user identify a subject member or event occurrence. Use an instance caption to label members or occurrences by their property values; use a secondary caption for additional identification.
If a caption is set, it:
- Displays the property in the Detailed View visual. For example, if Employee's caption is Full Name and secondary caption is Job Name, Detailed View will display Jane Smith, HR Specialist.
- Makes the subject available in the Compare room.
Example:
The property Full Name identifies specific employees. However, this may be an insufficient caption as employees sometimes have the same name, like John Smith. A secondary caption, such as Role or Location, further identifies particular employees.
Data category
A data category represents a dataset loaded into Visier that runs on a unique data load frequency. For this setting, select the data category that you want to this analytic object and its data to be loaded in. In your tenant, you may see the following system-generated data categories:
- Tenant: This data category is the default primary data category.
- Usage: This data category processes Visier usage information.
Additionally, any data categories created by you or your Visier team are available to assign to the analytic object. For more information, see Data Categories.
Data version settings
Visier allows each analytic object to override the globally-defined end date.
The end date config type sets the upper limit of selectable time periods in the solution experience. For example, if the end date config type is End of previous month and the current month is February, your users can select data up to the end of January in analyses and visualizations.
You can set the end date config type at the tenant level and per analytic object.
- Tenant level: The end date config applies to all analytic objects.
- Per analytic object: Overrides the tenant end date config for a specific analytic object.
Example: Let's say you load Employee data on the 15th of every month, Applicant data every Wednesday, and Requisition data every Friday. In this example, Applicant and Requisition have new data every week, whereas Employee has new data once a month. We can set the tenant end date config type as End of previous week, and then set an end date override for Employee as End of previous month. This allows your users to select dates up to the end of the previous week for Applicant and Requisition, and up to the end of the previous month for Employee. Without the Employee override, users could select dates for Employee up to the end of the previous week, but Employee data isn't loaded weekly so the visualizations would be blank.
To override the tenant end date config type for a specific analytic object:
- In a project, on the navigation bar, click Data > Tenant Settings.
- Select a data category.
-
In Settings, turn on Enable end date overrides on individual analytic objects.
Tip: If disabled, all analytic objects use the latest upload to determine the data end date. If enabled, each analytic object uses the latest upload for data that populate the object. For objects that aren't updated frequently, we recommend that you set object's end date config type to Use timestamp of source for a specific analytic object.
Let's say you loaded Employee Engagement data on July 31 and Employee data on September 20. Enable end date overrides on individual analytic objects is turned on, but there are no overrides for Employee Engagement or Employee specifically. Both objects use the tenant-level end date config type, but Employee Engagement uses July 31 as the latest upload, whereas Employee uses September 20 as the latest upload. If the tenant-level end date config type is End of previous month, then Employee Engagement's end date is June 30 and Employee's end date is August 31.
- On the navigation bar, navigate to Model > Analytic Objects.
- Select an analytic object.
- In Settings, under Data version settings, turn on Use default.
- In End date config type, select an end date config type from the list.
The following table describes each of the end date config types. To illustrate each end date config type's behavior, the example columns show what date is available to select if today is June 29, 2017 but the latest upload was April 30, May 2, or June 9.
|
End date config type |
Description |
Example 1: Latest upload on April 30 |
Example 2: Latest upload on May 2 |
Example 3: Latest upload on June 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Auto detect from data |
Use the date of the latest data point in the upload, including dates in the future. For example, let's say the latest data point in each example upload is April 30, July 1, and June 30, respectively. We recommend Auto detect from data as the default tenant-level end date config type. |
April 30 |
July 1 |
June 30 |
|
End of current month |
Use the end of the month of the latest upload. |
April 30 |
May 31 |
June 30 |
|
End of previous day |
Use the end of the latest upload minus one day. |
April 29 |
May 1 |
June 8 |
|
End of previous week |
Use the last Sunday of the latest upload. |
April 23 |
April 30 |
June 4 |
|
End of previous month |
Use the last day of the previous month of the latest upload. |
March 31 |
April 30 |
May 31 |
|
Use source timestamp |
Use the exact time of the latest upload. |
April 30 |
May 2 |
June 9 |
|
Use timestamp of source for a specific analytic object |
Use the exact time of the latest upload that contains the data for a specified analytic object. For example, use the time of the latest upload for Employee data. Let's say the latest Employee upload was on March 8. |
March 8 |
March 8 |
March 8 |
|
Use timestamp of current run |
Use the current time. |
June 29 (current time) |
June 29 (current time) |
June 29 (current time) |
|
End of current day |
Use the end of the current date. |
June 29 (end of day) |
June 29 (end of day) |
June 29 (end of day) |
|
End of previous month (if first load of month) or previous day |
Use the last day of the previous month if it's the first upload of the month. For all other uploads, use the end of the previous day. For example, let's say that April 30 isn't the first upload of the month, May 2 is the first upload of the month, and June 9 isn't the first upload of the month. |
April 29 (end of previous day) |
April 30 (end of previous month) |
June 8 (end of previous day) |
|
End of previous month (if first load of month) or week |
Use the last day of the previous month if it's the first upload of the month. For all other uploads, use the end of the previous week. For example, let's say that April 30 isn't the first upload of the month, May 2 is the first upload of the month, and June 9 isn't the first upload of the month. |
April 23 (end of previous week) |
April 30 (end of previous month) |
June 4 (end of previous week) |
|
End of previous month (if first load of month) or use source timestamp |
Use the last day of the previous month if it's the first upload of the month. For all other uploads, use the exact time of the latest upload. For example, let's say that April 30 isn't the first upload of the month, May 2 is the first upload of the month, and June 9 isn't the first upload of the month. |
April 30 (time of latest upload) |
April 30 (end of previous month) |
June 9 (time of latest upload) |
|
End of current month (if last day) or previous month |
Use the end of the month of the latest upload if it's the last day of the month. If it's any other day of the month, use the last day of the previous month. |
April 30 (end of current month) |
April 30 (end of previous month) |
May 31 (end of previous month) |
|
End of previous month (if first load of month) or current month |
Use the last day of the previous month if it's the first upload of the month. For all other uploads, use the last day of the current month. For example, let's say that April 30 isn't the first upload of the month, May 2 is the first upload of the month, and June 9 isn't the first upload of the month. |
April 30 (end of current month) |
April 30 (end of previous month) |
June 30 (end of current month) |
|
Allow future data |
Use the furthest date in the upload. For example, let's say there is a future start date of July 1 in all example uploads. Caution: Do not use for subject and overlay data. |
July 1 |
July 1 |
July 1 |
|
Last specified day of the week |
Use the latest week day, as specified, of the latest upload. For example, use the latest Wednesday of the latest upload. |
April 26 (latest Wednesday) |
April 26 (latest Wednesday) |
June 7 (latest Wednesday) |
|
Later or last specified day of the week or end of previous month |
Use the latest week day, as specified, of the latest upload without going beyond the previous month. For example, use the latest Wednesday of the latest upload without going beyond the previous month. |
April 26 (latest Wednesday) |
April 30 (end of previous month) |
June 7 (latest Wednesday) |
|
End of current month (if within five business days to end) or previous month |
Use the end of the current month of the latest upload if the upload is within five business days of the end of the month. Otherwise, use the last day of the previous month of the latest upload. |
April 30 (upload is within 5 days from end of month, use end of current month) |
April 30 (upload isn't within 5 days of end of month, use end of previous month) |
May 31 (upload isn't within 5 days from end of month, use end of previous month) |
|
End of previous month (if first load of month) or last specified day of the week |
Use the last day of the previous month of the latest upload if it's the first upload of the month. Otherwise, use the latest week day, as specified. For example, use the latest Wednesday of the latest upload. In this example, let's say that April 30 isn't the first upload of the month, May 2 is the first upload of the month, and June 9 isn't the first upload of the month. |
April 26 (latest Wednesday) |
April 30 (end of previous month) |
June 7 (latest Wednesday) |
Default metric
The default metric associated with an analytic object is used to generate system alerts and prevent an empty state for charts when your users switch between dimensions that have no relationship to the metric.
If enabled on a subject, default metric allows you to view the subject's history in Detailed View.
After onboarding data, the default metric is an easy way to quickly verify that the data for an object was loaded as intended. For this setting, select a metric that will act as the default metric for the object in visualizations and will be available as a data overview in Studio dashboard.
Example:
The Employee subject's default metric is Headcount. Because Headcount is a default metric for Employee, the system generates an alert for Headcount to ensure its values remain consistent and expected. When new employee data is loaded, the Headcount metric can be viewed in the dashboard as a quick way to discern if the data is accurate.
Tags
Tags are user-defined categories that group content in the solution. A tag can apply to multiple object types, including analytic objects, metrics, and guidebooks. A user may filter for objects with a particular tag throughout the solution. For this setting, add tags to identify the object as part of a specific content category. For more information about tags, see Create and Assign Tags to Content.
Example:
The Compensation tag is used for the Pay Change Events metric, the Total Cost of Workforce concept, the Compensation Type dimension, and the Compensation Payout event. This tag therefore groups these objects together as relating to compensation. The Compensation tag itself is allocated to the Talent module, meaning it exists within that solution.
Subject settings
The subject settings allow you to modify its behavior and the events associated with the subject.
Events
Events represent an incident at a specific point in time that occurs to a subject. They have attributes, but an event does not change after it has occurred. For this setting, select the conception and termination events for the subject. These events define the validity interval for a subject. Some subjects do not require conception and termination events.
Example:
The Employee subject has the conception event Employee Start and the termination event Employee Exit. The conception event indicates that the employee has started with the organization and is active, while the termination event indicates the employee is no longer with the organization and isn't active.
Primary key dimension
The primary key dimension toggle determines whether or not the subject's primary key is dimensional. When enabled, the primary key is available in your solution as a group by. Enable this setting to allow the unique values for the subject to be grouped by and filtered in a visualization. This is used in conjunction with Captions to define a display name for the subject's primary key.
Example:
Understanding your organization's succession readiness can be vital to continued productivity when turnover occurs. To visualize succession candidates as a group by, enable the primary key dimension toggle for the Succession Candidate subject.
Event settings
The event settings allow you to modify its behavior and the subject associated with the event.
Subject
Subjects are entities, or separate and independent things, that evolve over time. They have attributes and changes to those attributes are captured over time. For this setting, select the subject that the event is associated with.
Example:
The event Pay Change Events is an occurrence of an employee's change in pay. For this event, the associated subject is Employee.
Termination event
A termination event is the event that ends the validity interval of a subject. For this setting, enabling the toggle indicates the event is a termination event and ends the validity interval of the associated subject member.
Overlay settings
The overlay settings allow you to modify its categorization and treatment of values.
Aggregation
There are two options for overlay aggregation: rollup and lookup. Each aggregation type works with both interval and period time models. The types define how the values aggregate in a hierarchy.
- Rollup: Non-leaf intersections in the overlay are derived from their descendants. Select rollup if the values can be aggregated.
- Lookup: Every intersection in the overlay has a value that is individually provided and retrieved. Select lookup if the values cannot be aggregated.
Example:
The Engagement overlay has “lookup” aggregation because individual records exist for every intersection in the overlay. Engagement data cannot be rolled up since the combined value is not a sum of the subgroups.
Contrastingly, the Revenue overlay is “rollup” aggregation because data is derived from descendants, depending on the data schema.
Overlay category
The overlay category defines the type of data for the overlay. For this setting, refer to the following overlay categories and their definitions to choose the one you need.
- Business outcome: Defines KPI data for historical or correlation analysis.
- Plan/budget: Defines future goals or plans.
- External benchmark: Defines known values that are externally collected, government-provided, or internally generated.
- Visier Benchmark: Defines aggregated data provided by Visier that is appended to the tenant data version.
- Other: No category is defined.
Support value property
The support value property is an optional setting for benchmark overlays. A support property must be defined in the overlay to use best-fit functionality with benchmark values. This works as a tie breaker if multiple slices have the same number of valid records. The best fit works best with base metrics on lookup overlays and is thus optional for rollup overlays.
An overlay with a support value property set will return the most specific population—that being the smallest value of the support value property. For this setting, select a benchmark property to be the support value property.
Time model
The time model defines how overlay values are handled. This setting primarily defines what values are shown when selecting multiple time periods in the solution. This depends on whether the overlay holds event values or subject values.
When selecting multiple time periods, one expects event values to be aggregate but only the latest subject value to be shown. The platform generalizes this split with two options for the time model. Use:
- Each value equals a period for event values.
- Each value equals an interval for subject values.
An overlay value equals a period when it represents an event, such as the Expenses overlay, which represents the aggregated values of expense events. These values are valid for an instance but the platform displays them for the period of the granularity of the overlay.
An overlay value equals an interval when it represents a subject, such as the Engagement overlay, which represents the aggregated values of engagement for the Employee subject. These values represent the state of a subject and is valid over an interval.