Monday 26 May 2008

The Rational Guide to PerformancePoint Server Planning - Not a Book Review

I back-ordered The Rational Guide to Planning with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 with Amazon and was probably one of the first to get my hands on it. I hang my head in shame as it has taken me months to finish it. Not due to any short comings in the book, but rather that my 13 month old daughter firmly believes that my wife and I are put on this planet to serve and play.

The book is written by Adrian Downes and Nick Barclay and assured to contain no bull by Microsoft's own Peter Bull, Principal Group Program Manager for PerformancePoint Server.

I would like to call this a book review but cannot as just reading the book would be like reading a murder mystery with the last chapters torn out. The authors casually point out that you can download bonus chapters from the website, but what they don't tell you is that this is where the gold is to be found. If you buy this book you MUST download the additional 4 chapters.

The book is well laid out and easy to read. There are highlighted notes, tech tips and cautionary announcements throughout and enough screen shots for illustration. Worth mentioning is Chapter 9, Integrating Business Data. This details the ETL process between LOB systems and PPS and from many posts on the forum this seems to be an area of concern for a lot of people.

Both authors are extremely active in the PPS community and this book shows their authority on the subject.

- Paul Steynberg

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