Anyone use Clarity PPM with qlikview before?

[#1]

Is anyone familiar with Clarity PPM and using it in tandem with QV?

Could you share your experiences?

[#2]

I was wondering the same thing too!  Any input would be much appreciated!

[#3]

Well, I could probably write you a book.  I've been working with Clarity since it was known as Niku 6, and QlikView for the last two year.  I guess I'd have to ask what you're specifically looking for.  I mean, the database itself is pretty well designed, so it's not hard to build a data model and bring it down into .QVD files to build visualizations off of.

Tell me what you want to know and maybe I can help.

[#4]

Thanks for the response Nick,

I am just trying to become more familiar with how going from Clarity to Qlikview looks like. Are there any challenges that come up that are specific to Clarity?

[#5]

I can't think of anything specific that I'd say, "Watch out for this".  I mean, if you know how Clarity stores timeslices, lookups, and stuff like that, you're probably 90% of the way home for most reporting needs.  For OBSes, I'd stick with the flattened view that they provide.  I haven't needed to figure out the stuff in the Collaboration Module yet, but as I recall, it was pretty complex.

I think the main mistake I made was that this was the first data source I brought into QlikView, and it shows.  I didn't know any best practices or anything, and I thought synth tables were a good thing .  As such, maintenance on this thing is not fun, and I'll probably have to go back and do it right at some point.

Oh, and if you think there is any chance you might be going to Clarity-on-demand, keep in mind that CA won't let you access their database, so you'll need to rig up some alternative to get that data.

I hope that helps!

[#6]

But in general, you'd say that the connection has gone well?  Would you recommend this as a good option to use?

Have you come up with an alternative to access the CA database?

[#7]

Oh, heck yeah.  You just need to know your way around the Clarity data model.  There's actually a vendor out there that built a Clarity "connector".  Basically, a very nice dashboard, which seems like it would be a good starting point if you're not comfortable with the Clarity data model and have some money to spend.  I looked at it a couple of years ago, and the only criticism I had would be that every shop I've ever worked for used Clarity different and I wondered if their connector would work with the sorts of oddball configurations I've seen.

From a visualization standpoint, however, QlikView is a great tool for presenting this kind of data.  I mean, just imagine having all that timeslice data resident in memory and being able to flip it all around at will without having to go back to the database every time.

[#8]

Thanks!

[#9]

Thanks for your replies Nick. It seems like Qlikview and Clarity work very well together. Do you have any general tips that you could share from your experiences? Hope that is not asking too much!

[#10]

Nick, thanks for sharing your experiences with QV and Clarity.  Do you happen to know the name of the vendor that offered the Clarity connector?